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‘Tag’: An absurd and boisterous comedy (IANS Review, Rating: **)

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By Troy Ribeiro
Film: “Tag”; Director: Jeff Tomsic; Cast: Ed Helms, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Hannibal Buress, Jake Johnson, Isla Fisher, Annabelle Wallis, Leslie Bibb, Rashida Jones, Nora Dunn, Lil Rey Howery, Thomas Middleditch; Rating: **

Director Jeff Tomsic’s maiden feature film “Tag” is as absurd and bizarre as its incredible premise. Based on a real life story published in Wall Street Journal sometime in 2013, it is the story of grown up men in their forties, who, to keep their friendship alive, have been playing the game of “Tag” since their childhood.

How do they play it? During each May, the participants chase each other no matter where they are – at work, on the streets or in their homes, travelling from city to city, or having to disguise themselves, if need be, to physically catch or tap the opponent. The excitement of the game is what keeps them going.

The five friends are Hogan (Ed Helms) a married Veterinarian, Randy “Chilli” (Jake Johnson) a typical loser who is stoned most of the time, Bob Callahan (Jon Hamm) a top executive in an Insurance firm, Kevin Sable (Hannibal Buress) and Jerry Pierce (Jeremy Renner) a fitness guru.

Ever since they started playing the game, the group’s main rule is that the last one tagged on the last day of May has to begin the next season. And as per the rules, the narrative begins with Hogan tagging Bob, Kevin and Chilli. And like always Jerry has been the elusive one.

So, the quartet, along with Anna (Isla Fisher), Hogan’s wife, and Rebecca Crosby (Annabelle Wallis), the Wall Street Journal reporter who joins in the game, make it their mission to finally tag their friend Jerry, who has been the champion forever.

Yes, the plot is fluid, silly and outlandish, but at the core of it, the film is about friendship and the comedic aspect of the film comes from the various situational instances. There are a lot of slapstick moments that are astutely handled. But the charm of the humour dies much before it begins as the competitive spirit seems forced and ridiculous.

The script does a good job of mining the dynamics of male friendships, including the oddly believable facts that Renner’s character is so good at the game that they never really got to know him as a person. But there’s only so far one can take this.

The performances are sincere; Hamm and Helms get to stretch their comedic muscles more than before, Johnson does the most with his one-note stoner character and Buress works wonders with his dry delivery and as the fit and agile fitness guru Renner gets his chance to display his Parkour skills.

Among the females, Isla Fisher makes her presence felt as an aggressive, crude and highly competitive wife of Hogan. Rashida Jones as the hot author introduced to ignite a love-triangle is wasted in a poorly written role. And, Annabelle Wallis is perfunctory in a supporting role of a journalist.

Overall, “Tag” is a disorderly and boisterous comedy with some dark impulses which still finds space for sentiment that doesn’t feel totally out of place. The film will appeal to you, only if you like seeing grown-up men behaving like oversized kids.

–IANS
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Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

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CasinoDays India

International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.

Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.

The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.

Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile

The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.

CasinoDays India

The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.

“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.

Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings

Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.

 

CasinoDays India

Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).

Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.

The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.

Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.

Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities

The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.

On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.

Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.

“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.

The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.

 

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