The “talking animal” movie is a subgenre that seems like it would be easily rife for a wild parody or send-up. That being said, after watching Strays, it might be way more difficult than I thought.
Strays follows Reggie (Will Ferrell), a naive young Border Terrier who thinks the world of his owner, Doug (Will Forte). Unfortunately, Doug is a greedy, cruel person who would rather spend his days literally playing with himself than his dog. Sick of having to take care of him, Doug abandons the pup in a city hours away from home.
Soon enough, Reggie is introduced to the stray life by the foul-mouthed, streetwise Boston Terrier named Bug (Jamie Foxx) as well as his friends, the anxious, cone-wearing Great Dane Hunter (Randall Park) and the feisty, neglected Australian Shepard Maggie (Isla Fisher). After a night on the town eating floor pizza and humping lawn ornaments, Reggie realizes the toxicity of his relationship, and the group embarks on a quest to get Reggie home and enact revenge in the form of literally biting his junk off.
“…what hurts Strays the most is that for a movie with a one-joke premise. That joke wears out its welcome very quickly.”
While the idea of an R-rated spin on Homeward Bound is great in concept, Strays pretty much squanders it by relying entirely on the joke of cute dogs voiced by A-list actors saying or doing foul things for over 90 minutes and not much else. There isn’t much else to the movie beyond that. While for most people (including myself), that wouldn’t be an issue, what hurts Strays the most is that for a movie with a one-joke premise. That joke wears out its welcome very quickly.
It’s clear the whole cast clearly had a great time making the film, especially the main cast. But both Dan Perrault’s screenplay and Josh Greenbaum’s direction make Strays feel like a bad mid-2000s era raunchy comedy, featuring all the standard tropes from hip-hop-themed montages all the way down to the near-obligatory drug trip sequence, all without any creative spin on it to make it feel different beyond it coming from pets.
“If hearing dogs curse and doing gross-out gags for 90 minutes and nothing else sounds like your idea of fun, then Strays will no doubt be a great time at the movies.”
That’s not to say I was stone-faced throughout the entirety of the movie. Randall Park’s deadpan delivery gave me the few semi-consistent laughs I got out of the main cast. Will Forte makes the most of his brief screen time by being the most hilariously awful human being in existence, especially a moment in the opening scene describing Doug’s messed-up version of fetch. In addition, there was a gag poking fun at A Dog’s Purpose in a way that was legitimately funny, as well as a hilariously absurd cameo at the halfway mark that caught me completely off guard.
If hearing dogs curse and doing gross-out gags for 90 minutes and nothing else sounds like your idea of fun, then Strays will no doubt be a great time at the movies. But personally, I want these strays to go to a good home, if only so I don’t have to see them ever again.
