'80s Roulette: T.A.G. - THE ASSASSINATION GAME

Linda Hamilton gets some warm-up stopping a different kind of terminator

I have every single movie released in the United States on a hard drive and once a week, I’m going to hit shuffle and review whatever film comes up first.

Welcome to ‘80s Roulette!

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APRIL 23, 1982

Tag: The Assassination Game
Robert Carradine, Linda Hamilton, Kristine DeBell, Parry Lang, John Mengatti, Michael Winslow, Frazer Smith, Bruce Abbott, Xander Berkeley, Ivan Bonar, Scott Dunlop, Jim Greenleaf, Charlene Nelson, Steven Peterman, Jack Baker, Aaron Scott Bernard, Nora Boland, Richard Chudnow, Isabel Cooley, David Mason Daniels, Robert L. Gibson, John Maio, Sharon McGee, Christopher S. Nelson, Jerold Pearson, Dan Priest, Robert Starr, Jim Veneziano, Forest Whitaker, Rod Firestone, Johnny Bethesda, Buzz Clic, Brandon Matheson
cinematography by Will Kurant
music by Craig Safan
screenplay by Nick Castle
produced by Dan Rosenthal and Peter Rosten
directed by Nick Castle
Rated PG
1 hr 30 mins

A college newspaper reporter gets involved with an older student who is playing a dangerous game on campus, unaware that one player is using real bullets.

I met Nick Castle for the first time in the very early ‘90s. At that point, he was gearing up for what he thought was going to be his biggest film ever, a re-imagination of Peter Pan that asked the question, “What would happen if Peter Pan grew up?” I was excited to meet him because Castle had already lived several lives in film, writing and directing a number of films, but also playing Michael Myers in the original Halloween. And I was excited about his film because his passion for the idea was so clear, and he seemed so emotional when he described the film. A year later, speaking with him again, he seemed almost defeated by the events that ended up getting him fired from his own movie and replaced by Steven Spielberg and a small army of re-writers who turned Hook into a bloated monstrosity instead of a small personal picture as originally intended.