Strays 2023

Look. You cannot judge a movie for what you want it to be. You have to take it as it is, and examine how well it achieves what it wanted. Strays does exactly what it sets out to do. I wasn’t rolling with laughter, but it got the occasional chuckle. It was pleasant.

Jamie Foxx has that Jamie Foxx charisma to the extent that yes, I was a little emotionally affected by this movie. Not even tearing up levels, by any stretch, but it was something! Forte elevates rote material to something entertaining while being a detestable scumbag. Everyone in the cast showed up to do what they were paid for. Like, is it a little copaganda? Sure, but what? Am I gonna dock points off of fucking Strays for that? Is Strays the biggest thing reinforcing the police? Could Strays have been what toppled it all if they only had balls as big as their big ball dog? It’s fucking Strays! You get exactly what you expect and exactly what they set out to do.

And that’s why it gets the same rating Barbie did from me, a movie that set out to do so many ambitious things and achieved very little. I guess that evens out the end? You can’t really put my ratings on an equivalent scale like that but it was a very funny realization

Strays, a raunchy comedy centered around a group of personified stray dogs seeking revenge on their neglectful owners, is a film that certainly caters to a specific taste in humor. While it had a couple of moments that genuinely made me chuckle, the majority of its jokes fell flat for me. Humor is undeniably subjective, and for those who enjoy this style of comedy, Strays may well hit the mark, similar to the way Sausage Party did for some. However, the film's use of raunchy humor within a context that would typically be marketed to families left me with a slightly sour taste.

Beneath the layers of raunchy humor, Strays does attempt to convey a meaningful message about abuse and neglect, particularly our tendency to return to our abusers. This message is more evident in the first and third acts, providing a surprising depth to the storyline. Yet, it's somewhat obscured by the film's overall tone. Additionally, while the individual importance of each character is well-established, the casting choices, like Randall Park as a Great Dane, felt peculiar. Ultimately, whether you'll enjoy Strays depends on your taste in humor, and the trailers offer a good sense of what to expect. For me, it didn't quite hit the mark, earning it a C rating of 61%.

Bloody awful movie, that final scene with Doug is focking funny though!

'Strays' is still a terrible film, though. Reminiscent it is of 'Sausage Party', in that it uses lazy sexually rude shock value to try and entertain. At least that 2016 flick is animated and is about food, so works more than it should (if still not good). This, given what it's about (dogs) and how it's portrayed (live-action), is just disturbing. Even beyond that, it's all just so stupid and uninteresting.

Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx try to salvage this with their voice work, though the rest of the cast are all quite lousy unfortunately. I dunno how they got Brett Gelman to agree to his scene, by the way!£! Off-screen, surprising to see the names of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller attached as producers... expect much more from them, heck even from Louis Leterrier too!

I really disliked this, I can't lie. That earlier mentioned scene, one or two (literally) other 'OK' bits as well as how, in fairness, good the effects are for the dogs is what stops me rating this lower - I'm probably being too generous, mind. These sorta wacky movies for adults can work, but you gotta get more creative than this; sex and poop jokes only get you so far.