A One Mann’s Movies review of “Strays” (2023).
I seldom find trailers for comedy films very funny. But the trailer for “Strays” did tickle my funny-bone. Unfortunately, that good-will, and a few good gags, was not enough to offset my issues with this one.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell) lives with his owner Doug (Will Forte). Reggie thinks the world of Doug, but this is not reciprocated. When Doug drives Reggie hundreds of miles away and dumps him in a scary city, the truth finally dawns. And Reggie is driven by a new mission: to return home with his new-found-friends and “bite Doug’s dick off”.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Moderate violence, Strong language, sex references, crude humour, drug misuse”.)
Talent:
Starring: Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Will Forte, Isla Fischer, Randall Park.
Directed by: Josh Greenbaum.
Written by: Dan Perrault.
Twitter Handle: #Straysmovie.
Doug (Will Forte) taking Teggie for an extra-long-distance game of “fetch and fuck”. Source: Universal Pictures)
“Strays” Review:
Positives:
- Bits of this film are laugh-out-loud funny. The whole concept of the “fetch-and-fuck” game in the eyes of the innocent and naive Reggie is as funny as I found it in the trailer. And there is a joke with a dog’s penis and some keys that (although you could see it coming a mile off… no pun intended) was still funny.
- “You’ll believe a dog can talk”. With a history of dodgy special effects in similar movies, here the VFX are actually very good. I’m not sure how much of the doggie action was real, with well-trained dogs , and how much was computer generated. But regardless, you could seldom see the join.
- There’s a bizarre, but funny, cameo from Dennis Quaid.
Negatives:
- The film works best in its initial set-up scenes. But the laughs just ended up getting tiresome for me, resorting to schoolboy-level scatological humour that was decidedly hit and miss. Having Jamie Foxx’s Bug screaming the F-word in every other line is not as funny as the writers seem to think it is.
- There’s a certain meanness of spirit pervading the whole film that left a rather sour taste in my mouth.
Summary Thoughts on “Strays”
There are not enough new comedies coming to cinemas at the moment… I think the last I saw was the Jennifer Lawrence sex-comedy “No Hard Feelings”. But I made the mistake of seeing “Strays” on the same day as a screener I got for “Apocalypse Clown”…. and I’m afraid there was no comparison in terms of comedy value for me.
If you want to laugh a lot, go and watch “Airplane!” or “Apocalypse Clown” or If you want to watch a movie about pets finding their way home, watch “Homeward Bound”. If you want to watch a revenge movie watch “Unforgiven” or “Nobody“. This just makes a bit of a dog’s dinner of merging the these genres, and I wouldn’t recommend it. “Strays” might appeal to students coming home after six pints and a kebab. But I won’t be giving it another watch.
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Trailer for “Strays”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzwOLKTbCUw. Note that this is the red band trailer so NSFW.
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