|
|
|
|
|
Remember those cute animal movies that you watched as a kid (or when your kids were little)? Movies like the Buddies movies—or even movies like Disney’s Oliver & Company—with cute talking dogs on adorable adventures. Well, if you took those lovable talking dogs and put them in a remake of The Hangover, you’d get something like Strays.
Strays sets out on an outrageous adventure with Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell), a lovably scruffy pup who’s been abused and abandoned by his deadbeat owner, Doug (Will Forte). When Doug leaves Reggie in the middle of the city, Reggie is determined to find him back. But then he meets Bug (Jamie Foxx), a street-smart stray who takes him in and helps him understand that Doug was a terrible, terrible person. And with help from Bug and his other new friends, Maggie and Hunter (Isla Fisher and Randall Park), Reggie decides to return to Doug to get his revenge.
With just a few clues to work from, Reggie and his friends set out to find Doug’s house and make him suffer for what he did to his poor pup. From time to time, though, Reggie still struggles with his messy feelings of love and loyalty for Doug—much like Ferrell’s sweet, naïve Buddy the elf from Elf keeps going back to his biological dad, no matter how terribly he’s been treated. It’s a strange story about toxic relationships, all wrapped up in a raunchy and completely over-the-top buddy-dog road trip comedy.
Meanwhile, as Reggie tries to return to his old house, he and his friends end up in some completely bizarre situations. They try to find food at a carnival. They battle a giant bird. They eat the wrong mushrooms in the woods, which leads to an awkwardly drawn-out scene involving a bunch of bunnies. In other dog movies, these scenes may have had sweet and adorable results, but they’re just strange and often uncomfortable here—and usually revolving around some kind of bodily function. Fortunately, Ferrell brings his share of laughs with his cluelessly adorable shtick—but so much about the comedy here is overdone and cringe-worthy.
Strays obviously isn’t a film for the family—and it’s far from a sophisticated comedy for mature adults. It focuses mostly on sophomoric humor that often goes on a little too long. Though it does offer a few laughs—more, in fact, than I expected—it seems best suited for 20-something guys.
Follow along on the adventure when Strays arrives in theaters on August 18, 2023.
Listen to the review on Reel Discovery:
|
|
|
|
