‘Strays’- Film Review: This Raunchy Dog Comedy Needs More Bite

If you ever thought about what would happen if you took the story of Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey but made it R-rated, that’s what comes to mind in Strays, the latest comedy from Universal Pictures that you should definitely not take your children to. From director Josh Greenbaum (Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar), we’re in a time when the strangest concepts will get the green light. So why not center a story on dogs doing the craziest things, taking a new meaning to who let the dogs out? Am I right?

Just hearing about this years back was right up my way because we saw tons of live-action talking animal movies aimed towards young kids when I was growing up, and a significant number of them in the 2000s era were terrible. Who would’ve thought a riff about them come to fruition? It also needed to produce something worthwhile and be clever, not just be a one-note joke throughout a little duration, even though the trailers didn’t leave me with as high of expectations as I had anticipated. So, maybe it’s just me, but this is the second movie this year produced by the duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller that failed to live up to expectations of its absurd premise (the other being Cocaine Bear). With Strays, it surprisingly left more to be desired for a comedy about foul-mouthed dogs.

What’s the Story: In the dog days of a little Border Terrier named Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell), he’s living the perfect life despite being very naïve to his owner Doug (Will Forte) being selfish towards him. He thinks he’s great, but Doug’s an unemployed douchebag by keeping him to spite his ex. Every attempt to get rid of him through a game of fetch fails when Reggie always finds his way back. After finally having enough, he drives him out of town and leaves him in the big city, unaware he still thinks it is all a game. Alone and abandoned, Reggie soon meets Bug (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a rugged Boston Terrier who takes him under his wing to show him the ways of life being a stray dog. Once he introduces him to his pals, an Australian collie named Maggie (voiced by Isla Fisher) and a Great Dane therapy dog named Hunter (voiced by Randall Park), they embark on a journey to get Reggie back home and get revenge on Doug by taking away the one thing cares for the most: His dick.

It’s not always easy for animals to be trained like professionals on camera, but I’ll give the movie some credit to the dog trainers who helped make these dogs behave on-screen. Sometimes the CGI mouths moving on them were distracting at first, but I got used to it as we continued through this odyssey of getting Reggie back home.

The cast seemed to have fun with their voice work. Ferrell is hit-or-miss with many people, and I’ve always thought he’s amusing anytime he has a movie worth talking about. Fortunately, he does not come across as irritating though others may disagree. And you can’t help but think of his most famous character, Buddy from Elf, in dog form. Foxx managed to be the standout as Bug, and it’s been a while since the Oscar-winner has been involved in a mainstream comedy that I can remember or showing today’s audiences he’s more than a dramatic actor with his line deliveries. Fisher and Park were excellent additions to lending their comedic chops here. It’s also nice for Fisher to use her nature voice, which is weird since I haven’t gotten used to her Australian accent. They delegate the human characters to the background, letting the animals have the spotlight, but there’s something about Forte playing an unlikable guy that doesn’t sit right with me.

But the question remains whether this was funny. And it wasn’t all that funny. Maybe because I walked into Strays tired, but how inconsistent the laughs were is shocking. The basis of the comedy is seeing the observations of dogs being free as they want though raunchier than we associate with doing unusual things for the punchline. There’s barely anything too clever about them. Hearing dogs swear or humping isn’t anything new, but it wears off after a while, especially when they drop the F-bombs. And if you aren’t a fan of dogs crapping, you’ll probably feel nauseous about what they have planned. Just the couple of appearances from a narrating Golden Retriever was unexpected, and it might’ve been the funniest joke of the entire film despite never watching the particular movies this is spoofing. Where the jokes didn’t make me laugh, and that was the vibe I was getting from the audience I saw it with, and there wasn’t a lot that showed up. A highlight for others will be when they eat all these mushrooms in the forest and unpredictably trip out, culminating in a pretty dark aftermath I couldn’t even find funny because I love these certain animals.

Even the story isn’t anything to ride home about for a raunch comedy. The script from American Vandal’s Dan Perrault stretches thin as a satire of what dogs do when they don’t have a home to go to. This goes along with the message when dealing with toxic relationships and how we should respect our pets by building a closer bond with our pets. And when this has a nice dynamic between these dogs to consider them a family in this short period, there wasn’t enough heart to almost justify caring for the dogs themselves. They delved briefly into why Bug doesn’t trust humans, but it was almost too little, too late.

Compared to similar films over the past few years, I wouldn’t even say it’s on the same level as something like Sausage Party because that got some huge reactions from me (which I’m in the minority in saying I liked that. Sue me.) But for dog lovers, this is tailormade for their enjoyment. Though I consider myself one, this is one of the most disappointing comedies of the year for me, at least, that’s worth a rental rather than driving all the way to the theater.

Overall, Strays delivers on the promise of its adorable canine characters in the leads. Yet, it’s a shame the film itself has a tough time staying constantly funny to be considered a memorable comedy. From what I’ve seen, it’s been mixed reactions to it, but I’m not one to call it one of the better comedies this summer offered.