Travis Leamons // Film Critic
Rated R, 93 min.
Director: Josh Greenbaum
Cast: Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher, Randall Park, Josh Gad, and Will Forte
As per usual, when entering a press/promo screening, a studio rep hands me a comment card to fill out after the film has concluded. My instant reaction to STRAYS was the following:
John Wick would say, “F— these dogs.”
If dog’s best friend, John Wick, a man of few words, would say such a thing about the pups in STRAYS, then you might want to curb your enthusiasm about seeing this hard R-rated comedy billed “from the humans who brought you COCAINE BEAR.” Both movies may have a one-joke premise, but mileage varies in terms of laughs and enjoyment.
STRAYS is a profane riff on canine cinema where celebrities lend their voices to have cute animals cursing so much you need muffs to keep your ears from turning numb. When the dogs aren’t dropping f-bombs, they are pooping, peeing, vomiting, or humping sofas and garden gnomes. Being filthy without any attempts at clever humor only gets you so far. This constant barrage of profaneness for 90 minutes makes for a rough outing. Once it was finished, I felt like I had aged in dog years.
Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell) is a sweet, mangy border terrier with a bad owner. Doug (Will Forte) hates Reggie, always calling him some derivative of the f-word. He blames Reggie for his current status in life, which, before the dog entered the picture, included two girlfriends, monthly checks from mom, and days of drinking, getting high, and masturbating. Now, except for the girlfriends, Doug’s life remains unchanged. The opening is the repeated cycle of trying to ditch the dog with a game Reggie calls “Fetch and F*ck” on account of what Doug says at the beginning and end. Doug drives Reggie out into the country and throws a tennis ball far into the woods, then Reggie finds it and makes his way home.
Fed up, his latest game is a last-ditch effort to make Reggie a stray. Left in a back alley hours from home, Reggie meets Bug (Jamie Foxx), a street-savvy Boston terrier happy to be a dog without a home. Bug shows Reggie the ropes and the fun you can have when you aren’t attached to humans. Together they are joined by Maggie (Isla Fisher), an Australian shepherd, and Hunter (Randall Park), a Great Dane. Reggie becomes fast friends with the rest of this filthy foursome, going on episodic excursions and experiencing freedom for the first time. What Reggie considered a normal life with Doug – which leads to a short, albeit appalling, exposition dump of instances Reggie was abused, neglected, and endangered – his new experiences give him a new reason to be close to his owner again. And that’s to bite his genitals.
Low-hanging fruit for laughs this new purpose may be, STRAYS is mostly a humorless trek home. Attempts at shock value are mainly visual in execution. For example, the bandana around Reggie’s neck is one of Doug’s semen-dried rags. The four dogs scarf hallucinogenic mushrooms in the woods and tear up what they think are plush animals. Let’s just say it would be an open and shut case for the CCSI (Canine Crime Scene Investigation) unit. The dialogue is the biggest joke of all. It’s as if writer Dan Perrault was trying to set a record for most uses of the f-word and its derivatives in 90 minutes. But derivative is just another word for unoriginal.
The best laugh comes from Josh Gad when the four encounter his Golden Retriever character, Gus, at a carnival. Gus isn’t like the other four. He doesn’t talk. He narrates. As such, he has witnessed acts committed by his owner that would make Doug seem like a swell guy. The inclusion of the narrator dog – with Gad lending his pipes just like he did for A DOG’S JOURNEY – came totally out of the blue, and I wanted director Josh Greenbaum to ditch Reggie and the gang and have Gus narrate the rest of the flick.
Dog owners and lovers of crude cinema might find STRAYS one of the funniest things they see all year. Some might even get penis envy when they see Hunter attempting to grab a set of keys as the filthy foursome try their version of the great escape from a kennel. But after the colorful and campy comedy BARB & STAR GO TO VISTA DEL MAR, this Greenbaum follow-up is too shallow and too lowbrow to warrant its saccharine, heartfelt ending. With its one-joke premise and poor attempts at shock humor, I advise spaying and neutering these STRAYS.
Grade: D+
