Strays is a 2023 R-rated live-action comedy directed by Josh Greenbaum (Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar), and written by Dan Perrault (Players, American Vandal). The film is produced by Picturestart founder and CEO Erik Feig (Luckiest Girl Alive, Cha Cha Real Smooth), Louis Leterrier (director Fast X, The Clash of the Titans), Dan Perrault (Players, American Vandal), and Lord Miller partners Phil Lord and Chris Miller (Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part) and Lord Miller President of Film Aditya Sood (The Martian, Cocaine Bear).

Abandoned on the mean city streets by his lowlife owner, Doug, a naive but lovable dog named Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell) falls in with a fast-talking, foul-mouthed Boston Terrier (voiced by Jamie Foxx) and his gang of strays. Determined to seek revenge, Reggie and his new canine pals embark on an epic adventure to get him home and make Doug pay for his dirty deed.

The talented comedic cast includes Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Josh Gad (Beauty and the Beast), Harvey Guillén (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish), Emmy nominee Rob Riggle (The Hangover), Brett Gelman (Stranger Things), Jamie Demetriou (The Afterparty), and Emmy nominee Sofia Vergara (Modern Family).

Strays debuted in theaters on June 9th, courtesy of Universal Pictures.

THE GOOD

It honestly feels like the marketing team for Strays switched up their approach 17 times prior to the film’s release. It’s interesting because you really only see the trailers for R-rated films during other R-rated movies, but apparently, the trailer for Strays fell through the cracks during a few kid’s movies and that was not received well by the parents who were seeing said movies with their kids. Now surely that was a misstep somewhere along the line, but I don’t think it was a surprise that soon after that all of the trailers and images marketing the film had “NOT a kids movie” plastered all over it. Nonetheless, I was intrigued by a rare R-rated live-action comedy and had fairly high hopes as the release date neared. I wasn’t expecting anything that was going to blow me away, I just wanted some good laughs and an overall enjoyable experience. So, is Strays worth your hard-earned money, or is this one that is best to wait on the streaming release? Keep reading to find out!

I went into the theater more or less knowing what to expect, and all things considered, I was very pleased with the film. Strays is a reminder that I have the sense of humor of a depraved teenager, and that is honestly more than okay with me. Whether you want to call it the R-rated Homeward Bound or just another excuse for a group of dudes to get together say a bunch of messed up shit, the film had a goal in mind from the start and they stuck with it. I can appreciate raunchy and fairly crude humor so I laughed out loud quite a few times even though not all of the jokes landed. It feels a little strange to say that I was pleased with the ending considering the plot was a dog on a revenge mission to bite his douchebag owner’s dick off. But, here we are.

I was also impressed that the story did have a few wrinkles that I didn’t expect which added a nice feel-good element to all of the craziness. I was very impressed with the visual effects as everything looked great making it so you can focus on the other elements of the film instead of being distracted by bad CGI. Plus just the collaboration between the director, the dogs and their trainers, the voice actors, and everyone else involved, I thought this was a pretty damn impressive joint effort in terms of the final product.

For me, Strays really shines in terms of its ability to immerse viewers in this wacky world of talking dogs who enjoy humping garden gnomes and pooping on people’s faces. I don’t know what it says about me, but the running joke of Will Ferrell’s Reggie meeting and subsequently humping “his son” the garden gnome made me laugh every single time. That scene in particular was so damn funny. The story itself is pretty ridiculous and paper-thin of course aside from a few subplots, but they squeeze enough juice out of it to make for sort of a redemption story which I thought was pretty cool. Strays also manages to add just enough of a feel-good element by the end of the film to leave viewers with a little more than just raunchy humor. I won’t talk too much more about the story at the risk of spoiling anything, but let me just say that when “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus cranks at full volume during the film’s grand finale, I was laughing my ass off at what was unfolding on screen. So good.

The voice cast is fantastic and without a doubt the highlight of the film. I know some people dislike Will Ferrell, but I think the guy is a damn godsend in the comedy genre and he was perfect as Reggie. The character fits his usual soft-spoken and naïve demeanor in terms of the sort of characters he usually plays. Jamie Foxx dominates in his role as the street-smart dog Bug, small in stature but big in personality. The chemistry Ferrell has with Foxx was very important to the success of the film. Will Forte was great as expected in the role of the a-hole loser dog owner, while Isla Fisher and Randall Park were both fantastic as the voices of Maggie and Hunter too! Also, Josh Gad did a really nice job as Gus, and as always, I enjoyed my guy Rob Riggle as the voice of Rolf. Nevertheless, the voice cast was just excellent from top to bottom.

All things considered, I thought Strays looked great. It probably shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the advancements in technology and how far CGI has come that live-action talking dogs look pretty damn spot on, but it was still great to see. I was never once distracted by the talking dog element because it looked so natural, allowing me the ability to focus on what mattered. From what I have read the post-production VFX work took the longest in terms of the overall project which makes perfect sense to me. I also loved the score and the soundtrack for the film which always felt fun and high-energy. Plus I don’t know if this would be considered a “technical” achievement or not, but the trainers deserve a TON of credit for sharing these beautiful animals with the world and helping to create a fun hour and a half at the movie theater.

THE BAD

I know this will come as a surprise, but unless they introduce a Best Garden Gnome Humping Sequence category we likely won’t hear about Strays at next year’s Academy Awards. This movie is far from perfect and is what it is really, but some of the more glaring issues were more or less expected. With an hour and 30-minute film, it is easy to give away a bunch of the good parts in the trailer, especially with a comedy and unfortunately, that is the case with Strays. Now I wouldn’t go as far as to say it ruined the experience entirely, I just knew what was coming more often than I would have preferred but I still laughed so all was not lost.

It does still include a few great parts that the trailer doesn’t give away, which does include the epic finale that I referenced earlier in the review. It took me a bit longer than I had hoped to get immersed in the film which was a problem, at least at first. Strays targets a certain demographic for sure which is fine, but if you see the movie and don’t buy into the overall tone and feel it will likely rub you the wrong way more often than not. Plus it includes lots of crude sexual humor involving dogs, dog poop for days, also a dog throwing up and another dog eating it. But I mean if you have dogs, you have likely encountered several of these examples at home.

THE VERDICT

A rare R-rated live-action dog comedy featuring a talented cast of voice actors and a revenge mission not for the faint of heart, Strays is far from perfect but doesn’t hold back and isn’t afraid to push the envelope. Soon after seeing the movie someone told me they were going to see it later that day and asked me my thoughts, so I basically said go in knowing what to expect, and you will have a great time with this movie assuming you appreciate the genre. See it with a few friends and be sure to enjoy a few adult beverages during it, that is the best advice I can give. Just going through images for the film for the purposes of this review I caught myself laughing out loud. I tried to tell my wife about the funny parts but she just sort of gave me a blank stare, which was just further proof that this movie is not for everyone. If you pride yourself on having a great sense of humor, can appreciate raunchy comedy, and love dogs, Strays is absolutely the movie for you.