morrison-dylan-fan Gathering up a small pile of Video's that I'm hoping to sell during the Christmas period,I noticed a Video with a very cheap & tacky cover.Originally expecting the movie to be nothing but an extra low-rank Action movie,I was instead shocked to discover,that along with featuring Forest Whitaker (playing a boom-box carrying "gangsta" thug!) in his debut role,the film also had Linda Hamilton in the lead role,which led to me going back on the school play fields to play a deadly game of tag.The plot:Struggleing to find a subject to fill up the student newspaper,journalist Alex Marsh decides to do a report on the 6th annual Tag:Assassination tournament is being held at his university,where students are each given a dart gun,and told that they have to "take out" all of the other students,in order to become the number one Tag champion.Finding himself quickly drawn into the event's world,Alex finds himself following Tag whizkid Susan Swayze,who he witnesses quickly rising through the ranks.Unbeknowst to Susan,as she gets closer to reaching the Tag final,the reining champ decides that he is going to have to take extreme measures in order to hold on to his title… View on the film:Featuring name checks for Lauren Bacall and Raymond Chandler, (and also covering the student newspaper wall with a huge Bogart poster) writer/director Nick Castle gives his teen riff on Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game a terrific Film Noir edge,as Alex finds himself being unable to look away from the dangerous adrenalin rush of the Tag tournament,and also the sassy, witted charms of Susan.Whilst Castle's path into a Slasher-lite territory, (the reigning Tag champion is a complete nutter) does water down the movies Noir charm,and the roguish thrill of being caught up in the exciting,ruthless tournament,Linda Hamilton gives a terrific spirited performance as Susan Swayze,with Hamilton showing a proto-Sarah Conner level of daring and guts as Susan battles to dodge the final "Tag" that could lead to her game,being permanently over.

acidburn-10 Tag - The Assassination Game is yet another one of those unknown slashers from the 1980's, but has a few famous stars in it Linda Hamilton (The Terminator 1&2) as the final girl and Bruce Abbott (The Re-Animator) as the deranged killer (not a dead give away it's revealed very early on).To be honest you can't really call this movie a slasher as the killer doesn't use any sharp instruments just a gun as he takes the game of tag quite literally, with fast descent into madness. Especially when Linda Hamilton becomes his latest victim then we get the classic killer and final girl showdown. Tag is a very entertaining movie in my opinion especially loved the cheesy starting where it looks more like a 70's TV show than a horror/thriller movie. I also liked romance angle between Hamilton and the reporter- when they get all lovey-dovey the soundtrack turns to mush, all sax solos and dinner lounge piano. The acting is pretty good and the cast is likable, especially from the main leads. But the only drawback that this movie is that it's a little bland at times with no suspense. But all in all an OK movie.

RickSkyboy The first thing I notice when I watch "TAG" is that the film seems to have been made on TV tape....it has that feel. Sound and lighting are basic, and it's clear from the outset that this movie was made on a shoestring budget.It is the acting that brings this film through. Linda Hamilton studied Lauren Bacall very closely, and makes a credible run at a "To Have and Have Not" moment, and Robert Carradine hams it up as a budding ace reporter. Bruce Abbott is darkly psychotic as the bad guy. Hard to believe that Linda married this guy!Worth a look at least once, if you can find it.

Lornsorrow Jaded viewers imposing current film standards and expectations may want to look elsewhere, but if one has an appreciation for 80's movies and other movies of this type and pace, then it's clear that Tag has aged well for what it is. Tag is a dark comedy-thriller that takes place on a college campus during the 1980's. Think of something along the lines of Terror Train (1980 with Jamie Lee Curtis), except with comedy and a tongue in cheek quality to it, at least in the films first half.TAG, The Assassination Game (1982) is a great little film that has gained a strong, though seemingly small fan following over the years. I've watched it many times since I discovered it in the early 80's (after which I got a few people together in my high school so we could hunt each other down with rubber band guns –not recommended). A lot of people simply don't appear to know much about this dark comedy/thriller. Most people who've seen this film give it decent reviews, but the reviews themselves are few and far between. So, here is a little more information about this great flick. The plot is simple. At a college campus the latest pastime is a game called TAG. TAG players are given lists of targets (consisting of other players in the TAG group) that they chase after all over the large college campus with fake plastic suction tipped dart guns. The last man or woman who hasn't been hunted down and successfully tagged in the end, wins. There are a few rules to this campus game (game play stops at 12:00 midnight, etc.), but that's about it. It's all a fun pastime with a chance to meet new people. That is, until things go wrong.The reigning champion (played wonderfully by Bruce Abbott in his first film role) gets so upset over getting tagged and losing that he decides to use real bullets instead and continue on with the game. The movie is a decent paced 80's film with a noir like tongue in cheek quality to it that develops into the dark and serious, contains a fair amount of suspense, and pulls it all off with nice style for a little film. Its ending is serious, but with a wink, and an homage to those noir films of yesteryear. It also shows that gore, tons of violence, etc., is not necessary to make a good thriller. Though I've never seen anything else really like TAG, there are a few other movies that one might like if they like it, such as Silver Streak (1976), and Foul Play (1978). I hope some day TAG gets remastered to DVD. Till then, I guess its out of print VHS tapes. TAG, was written and Directed by Nick Castle. Castle was involved in helping his friend, Director John Carpenter write Escape From New York, and TAG was Castle's first Directing project. Castle would later go on to direct more commercially honed films (for that time period) such as The Last Starfighter, The Boy Who Could Fly, and others. He's still working today. He was also the original man behind the mask in Halloween.Having already been in a number of films before TAG, (most notable to me is The Big Red One as a cigar smoking writer named Pvt. Zab), Robert Carradine appears in Tag as a dashing cigar smoking journalist who falls in love with the movies heroine. After TAG, Carradine went on to do Revenge of the Nerds in 1984 as Lewis Skolnick. He's still active in his long career.Aside from a couple of TV roles and minor work, TAG is Linda Hamilton's first real film. Her role as Sarah Connor in Terminator (1984) was still two years away. One can tell from watching her in TAG that she already had a good grip on her craft. She's beautiful here, and thankfully we would see a lot more of her skill and beauty in the years to come, and still do. (Incidentally, Bruce Abbott apparently did "get" Linda Hamilton in the end after all, in reality that is. They were married from December 19, 1982 till they were divorced in 1989. They had one son together Born October 4, 1989, Dalton Abbott.)