Title – Strays (2023) 

Director – Josh Greenbaum (Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar)

Cast – Will Forte, (voices of) Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher, Randall Park, Sofía Vergara

Plot – Dumped by his unloving owner Doug (Forte), dog Reggie (Ferrell) finds himself on the harsh streets and under the wing of fellow stray Bug (Foxx) who along with a collection of his friends joins Reggie on a road trip quest to get revenge on the dastardly Doug. 

“You can learn how beautiful it can be when you’re off the leash”

Review by Eddie on 23/08/2023

Want to take the family out for the newest bout of canine cinematic goodness, an adventure full of life lessons, adorable doggos and paw filled shenanigans? Then you may want to stay clear of the very wild, far from mild Strays, the wildest dog-centric tail (my apologies) you’re ever likely too see, doing for dogs what Sausage Party did for seemingly everyday grocery items in making us look at well-known and beloved staples in a whole new light. 

Directed by Josh Greenbaum, whose previous cult comedy Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar found a lot of fans in the heat of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 and produced by comedic heavyweights Phil Lord and Christoper Miller, Strays comes from some serious pedigree and has its fair share of A-list talent lending their vocals to the pooch filled cast with Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher and Randall Park bringing our gang of Reggie, Bug, Maggie and Hunter to life but there’s little chance audiences are prepared for just how off the rails and insane Strays often gets, ensuring this is a comedy that is either going to cause aisle rollovers from laughing or audiences clambering for the nearest exits. 

Full of foul-mouthed canine cussing, genitalia jokes to last a lifetime, an inside joke aimed at A Dog’s Purpose that will become a future classic and use of Miley Cyrus’s hit Wrecking Ball that will not soon be forgotten, Strays is unafraid to go to some dark and depraved places and one’s enjoyment of what transpires will likely depend on their tolerances for a lot of low common denominator jokes that are sporadically surrounded by some actually fairly sweet examinations of friendships, the relationships between man and dog and also some fairly on point observational humour centred around our canine friends that is sure to appease any dog owners. 

To call Strays slight would be an understatement, this is a quickfire Hollywood comedy uninterested in playing any other game than the one it set out to partake in, clocking in a refreshingly brisk 90 minutes and getting stuck straight into the action that will give audiences more of Will Forte than perhaps they ever wanted, there’s no attempts from Strays to hide what it is, a raunchy mid-budgeted comedy that has once more tanked at the global box office, calling into question the future of this type of sub-genre that once dominated cinema screens in the early to late 2000’s. 

Enthusiastically voiced to life by its cast, with Foxx in particular having an absolute blast with his cantankerous and dirty Boston Terrier Bug speaking about custard launchers, the anatomy of birds and the rules of the stray life, Strays has a lot of energy, creativity and taboo tree shaking moments, making it one of the more care-free and enjoyable Hollywood comedies in sometime and one that will likely find a long-winded second life/cult status once it hits streaming services in the near future.     

Final Say – 

Proving once more that you most certainly have not seen it all (here’s looking at you squirrels and Dennis Quaid), Strays is a dog-filled feature unlike any we’ve previously laid witness to and while it’s devoid of any significant importance or long-lasting messages, it’s a mature comedy adventure that provides exactly what is advertised, giving us more laughs than what we’ve come to expect from the genre in recent years. 

3 couches out of 5