At first glance, Tag seems to have quite a bit of potential, especially when you hear it’s based on a true story and stars a boatload of favored talent including Jon Hamm, Ed Helms, Jeremy Renner, Isla Fisher, Rashida Jones and Thomas Middleditch.

But can it sustain its wacky storyline about five friends who have been playing a knock-down, drag-out game of tag for one month every year since they were in first grade? We catch up with these five fine friends the year that Renner’s character Jerry, who has never been “it,” is getting married. He hasn’t invited his best buds for fear of getting tagged during the nuptials, so of course they vow to surprise him and tag him for the first time ever.

It’s frantic and funny, but it’s also flat at times. We needed a few more clever jokes and diverse situations, and a few less “feet don’t fail me now”  chases. We could also use some spackle in those glaring plot holes, as in answers to questions like, “How do all these guys just drop work at a moment’s notice and fly around the country?”

And I hate to say it, because Helms is such a nice guy and talented actor, but he just doesn’t have the gravitas to carry a film as the lead. It’s a problem so many character actors face.

Director Jeff Tomsic, a newcomer to the genre, periodically lets loose of the reins. Clocking in at an hour and forty minutes, it feels much longer, and could have benefitted from more skilled editing. That’s a long time to watch a bunch of adults running around like first graders.

Still, it has a surprisingly sweet, good-natured ending, where it could have devolved into darkness. And the footage of the real guys tagging each other at the end are priceless.

Rated R

1 Hour 40 Minutes