Tag Archives: jeremy renner

Jun 17 2018
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Movies

Movie Review – Tag (2018)

Tag, you’re it, 3.5 readers.

BQB here with a review of “Tag.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFTY-OyMqB4

I love it when a movie pleasantly surprises me.  Going into this, I expected a fairly standard to possibly mediocre comedy.   I didn’t expect anything great or terrible, just something to pass the time.

I was wrong.  This movie is a laugh riot and who knew that Jeremy Renner had comedy chops.  Not this guy.  That’s who.

Renner, Jon Hamm, Ed Helms, Hannibal Buress and Jake Johnson star as a group of friends who have been playing the same game of tag every May since childhood.  While they were kids, simply running around the neighborhood whilst slapping each other was fine, but now that they are adults and men of means, they resort all kinds of tricks, schemes, antics and shenanigans to trick each other into getting tagged.  From wacky costumes, to elaborate set-ups and even downright lies, nothing is sacred as these pals try to one up each other.

Renner plays the king of the tag game, having never, ever once been tagged.  To tag him is the holy grail of the game, and as his wedding approaches, the tag posse see an opportunity, not to be there for their best bud on his big day….but to give him the tagging he so richly deserves.

Isla Fisher stars as Helms’ foul-mouthed wife who takes the game more seriously than her hubby, pushing her man to engage in all kinds of hi-jinx to tag their long time adversary.

Meanwhile, Annabelle Wallis stars as Rebecca, a Wall Street Journal reporter who is so taken aback by the silliness that she follows the group in order to report on their taggings.

Interestingly enough, the movie is actually based on a Wall Street Journal article about a real life group of friends who kept a game of tag going from youth well into adulthood.

The movie’s motto is “You don’t stop playing when you get old, you get old when you stop playing,” and ironically, the game gives the friends, who all live in different parts of the US, to drop what they are doing every May and seek one another out.  How sad that friendships blossom in youth only to require an excuse to continue in adulthood, but alas, that’s the way life goes.

Very funny.  Made me bust a gut several times.  Renner is hilarious as he takes down his would be tag assailants with expert precision and extreme prejudice.

STATUS: Shelf-worthy.

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Aug 27 2017
3 Comments
Movies

Movie Review – Wind River (2017)

So much snow.  So much ennui.

BQB here with a review of “Wind River.”

When a young woman’s body is discovered on Native American reservation land, it’s up to an unlikely trio to solve the mystery.  Said trio consists of Corey Lambert (Jeremy Renner), a mountain lion hunter for the U.S. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, super hot rookie agent out of her depth Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen), and grumpy old tribal police chief Ben (Graham Greene) to solve the mystery.

Those who have never been there (myself included) might thing of life in Wyoming as clean, country living – wide open spaces

When a young woman’s body is discovered on Native American reservation land, it’s up to an unlikely trio to solve the mystery.  Said trio consists of Corey Lambert (Jeremy Renner), a mountain lion hunter for the U.S. Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, super hot rookie agent out of her depth Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen), and grumpy old tribal police chief Ben (Graham Greene) to solve the mystery.

Those who have never been there (myself included) might thing of life in Wyoming as clean, country living – wide open spaces devoid of harsh urban crime.  Think again because apparently, according to whoever wrote this film, it really sucks to live in Wyoming.  It sucks real bad.

It sucks even worse to live on a Native American reservation.  The film gives us a look into the challenges of reservation life – the land is cold, unforgiving, undeveloped and there isn’t much to do there.  Native American parents have to deal with their dumb kids wearing backwards hats, taking drugs and blaring their rap music as they rebel against their humdrum lives so yeah, pretty much what happens in any family with teenagers. with the exception that opportunities for the natives to rise above it, make money and become successful are few and far between.

Crime exists and worse, there are few resources to deal with it.  As stated in the film, the reservation is the size of Rhode Island yet the tribal police department only has six officers.  The Federal government of yesteryear pushed the natives here but the Federal government of today isn’t doing much to help them.

Oh and because the terrain is so harsh and undeveloped, it often takes a fifty mile drive or a long trek on a snowmobile to get to a point that is only five miles away.

Further, as the film points out, Native American women often go missing and because statistics are not kept, it is difficult to determine how or why this happens.  Alas, perverts and creeps abound and due to the wide open spaces and little law enforcement to patrol such vast lands, it is easy for a pervert and/or creep to engage in perverted, creepy activities, preying upon the innocent with reckless abandon.

So yeah, if anyone in charge happens to catch this movie, the good people of Wyoming, especially the native people, need some assistance.

Renner and Olsen get to exercise their acting chops.  Fun fact, this isn’t the first time these two have worked together.  It’s just the first time they have worked together while not wearing tights.  That’s right.  In the Avengers films, Olsen is Scarlett Witch and Renner is Hawkeye.

While their comic book alter egos are fun, Renner and Olsen get real here.  Olsen is super hot and boner inducing, not to mention a young woman who appears to be full of hope about life.  She’s green, not having been with the FBI long and it’s up to Lambert and Ben to educate her as to what life is like in a corner of the world where life is a daily, seemingly insurmountable struggle.

Renner is his usual grumpy, stoic self, though that works here as a typical cowboy/hunter.  His character, Lambert, suffers from his own past demons and sees this case as a path toward redemption.  Further, since he is not a cop, he has the ability to act outside the law, which at times, puts him at odds with Banner.

At any rate, it’s a film that isn’t getting a lot of heat but it deserves some.  Overall, it’s a good mystery and while there are times when it is slow, the ending, which I won’t give away, will make your butt pucker.  Did I ruin it by saying that the ending will make your butt pucker?  Hmm, I probably did because now you will be expecting it.  Oh well.  Forget I said anything.

STATUS: Shelf-worthy.

 

 

 

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