Strays

Strays
Starring Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher, Randall Park
Directed by Josh Greenbaum

Comedy, apart from any other genre, is a truly subjective genre - at least in my opinion. What one person thinks is laugh-out-loud funny another person would be in excruciating mental anguish wishing for their personal hell to end. When it comes to the comedy of Will Ferrell, that pretty much sums up my thoughts: I just want his shtick to end. He once was hilarious in films like "Talladega Nights," "Anchorman," "Old School," and the like, but his generic acting style of playing the innocently upbeat person has grown stale for me. He plays the same aloof goof film after film, and the only consolation I have with "Strays" is that I don't have to see him on screen, just hear his voice through the mouth of a lovable Border Terrier.

Reggie (Will Ferrell) is a gullible Border Terrier who loves life and, more importantly, loves his owner Doug (Will Forte), despite Doug's obvious hatred for him. He never wanted the dog in the first place, and now that he's stuck with Reggie he tries to find ways to get rid of him, and comes up with an idea: take Reggie hours outside of town and ditch him under the guise of a game that he plays with Reggie where he throws a tennis ball and drives off. Reggie thinks it's a more advanced version of the game, but soon finds himself alone on the streets of a city he's never been - but thankfully he's taken in by stray Boston Terrier Bug (Jamie Foxx), who shows him the ropes of being a stray, even though Reggie thinks he's going home.

Bug introduces Reggie to his friends: an Australian Shepherd named Maggie (Isla Fisher) and a Great Dane named Hunter (Randall Park), and eventually Reggie comes to terms that Doug did indeed abandon him, and sets out for revenge - by biting his private parts off. The four four-legged friends embark on the journey back to Doug's so Reggie can extract revenge, and along the way learn the values of supportive friends, dealing with toxic relationships, finding your worth, and never eating mushrooms you find in the woods.


The Good:
Sometimes the jokes are funny - not gut-rolling, but enough to elicit a chuckle out of me and giving me the extra energy to drudge through this 90-minute-that-feels-like-"Oppenheimer"-length movie. The most audible laughs from me came from a surprising cameo from an actor who plays himself and pokes fun at himself: but sadly that's just a cameo in an otherwise cricket-inducing film.

The film does shed light on the importance of getting out of toxic relationships and the bond of true friendship, so those are great lessons to be learned. You could learn those same things in a book, and that would be much more preferable - and I don't read.

The animals were cute and lovely, and it's always difficult to work with animals, so kudos to the trainers who worked with the animals to make them act like they did.

Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx recorded their scenes together, which is something that doesn't normally happen when it comes to recording audio, and in doing so were able to work better off one another, and it shows. Their friendship in the film is the bleeding heart of it all, and you feel a connection between the two.


The Bad:
Most of the jokes fall incredibly flat, and if you saw the trailer you know how it all ends anyway, along with some of the "best" jokes.

The film has a price tag of $45 million to make, and a lot of that went toward the VFX of the dogs' mouths moving. It's surprising it cost so much because the words being spoken and their lips don't match more often than not, and it's like watching a foreign film dubbed.

Speaking of the jokes, did I mention they didn't really hit? "Strays" goes to the lowest common denominator when it comes to comedy: if its not funny, make jokes about poop and pee. That'll get the audiences in an uproar of laughter, right? Sometimes, I guess, but for me, not this time.


The Verdict:
The appeal of "Strays" will vary depending on how much you enjoy Will Ferrell's one-note typecast, but for me I found it to be unfunny and generic, a film that could've been put straight to streaming and eliminated the theatrical middle man.


The Score: D