strays is absolutely ridiculous. It tells the story of adorable doggo Reggie (Will Ferrell) who lives with his abusive owner Doug (Will Forte). As a precocious little fella, Reggie (or Shitbag as Doug calls him) does as dogs tend to do. He poops on the floor and humps Doug’s leg and finds a nice new chew toy that just so happens to be underwear not belonging to Doug’s girlfriend.
After she leaves him, Doub blames Reggie for everything wrong in his life and dumps him in the city. Left to his own devices, poor little Reggie meets Bug (Jamie Foxx), Maggie (Isla Fisher) and Hunter (Randall Park) who travel together on a journey for revenge.
After years of abuse at the hands of Doug, Reggie decides he’s going to hit him where it hurts and “bite his dick off.” Reggie suggests the thing loves most in the world is his dick.
Strays
While Strays looks like a typical cutesy dog movie, it’s anything but. This is Homeward Bound filtered through the lens of filth, stupidity and gross-out humour. And it’s actually pretty decent. I spent the majority of my time watching Strays laughing. Not all of the jokes land and if you’re not a fan of butt and poop and dick jokes then you’re probably not going to get much mileage out of Strays, but if you want to kick back, turn your brain off and enjoy some really dumb comedy, Strays is perfect.
The film spends the majority of its time with Reggie and crew on their journey to Doug’s and as good as the animation is for their speaking, Strays looks a little odd. Scenes often feature the dogs speaking to each other and no amount of CG and training can hide the fact that these dogs are awkwardly following their commands. However, as previously mentioned, Strays is not a movie designed to be critiqued for it’s filmic and stylistic choices.
It’s a movie where dog’s talk about biting dicks off, shout “motherfucker” and (for some reason) Dennis Quaid cameos as himself on a birdwatching trip. Don’t think about it, just laugh and go with it.
From start to finish, Strays comedy comes down to two main subjects; “remember dogs? and remember funny things they do” and ‘swearing.’ Strays wrings a lot of mileage from jokes built on the way dogs interact with the world. From marking their territory to the little spins they do when trying to get comfy for bed, Strays mines that material, hard. As a dog lover, I thought it was great. I love my dogs and everything they do. I’m the kind of person who points out random dogs in public, so Straysis right up my alley.
When Strays isn’t focused on dog jokes, it’s having Reggie, Bug, Hunter and Maggie talk about obscene filth. They discuss regular-style sex and wonder what kind of sex humans have. Bug frequently has sex with a couch, they get drunk and high and one scene includes both a giant dog erection and an ungodly quantity of canine feces.
A movie to take your kids to, this is not.
Strays wouldn’t work as well as it does or be as funny as it is if not for the cast’s performances. Will Ferrell as Reggis perfectly captures that sweet, innocent quality of the scruffy dogs we all know and love. What’s surprising is that even amongst all the poop, dick and sex jokes, Strays has moments of genuine pathos which owes a lot to Ferrell’s characterisation. Jamie Foxx imbues Bug with his best angry black man energy, which given Bug is a Boston Terrier opens up some great comedic territory.
Isla Fisher and Randall Park round out the main crew and while Fisher is wonderful as Maggie, to me, it sounded as though Park was just bored. Hunter remains low energy throughout the film but not in a fun, interesting way. Instead, I get the feeling Park just wasn’t into it.
Overall, Strays is ridiculous, hilarious, unexpected and wildly inappropriate in the best possible way. Don’t make the mistake of taking your kids to it and don’t go in expecting too much. I walked out thoroughly laughed out and who wouldn’t want to watch cute dogs behave badly for an hour and a half?
Leo Stevenson attended a screening of Strays as a guest of Universal Pictures Australia.
