'Strays' Review: A Raunchy Comedy Goes to the Dogs – The New York Times
Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx voice two canines on a quest for revenge on this crude live-action function.
The King James Bible is loaded with memorable analogies, and one of the vivid is from Proverbs: “As a canine returneth to its vomit, so a idiot returneth to his folly.” It’s true — a canine will try this. A canine may also pattern the vomit of one other canine, as is depicted in one of many many intestinal, fecal and urinal gags served up within the relentlessly raunchy comedy “Strays.”
Directed by Josh Greenbaum from a script by Dan Perrault, “Strays” tells the story of Reggie (voiced by Will Ferrell), a winsome Border terrier who’s deserted by his proprietor, the depressing, porn-addict stoner Doug (Will Forte).
Alone in an alley, Reggie will get the come-on from some attractive Afghan hounds. How does prostitution work in unsupervised canine society? It’s by no means defined, simply because it’s by no means defined why the animals communicate to one another in English whereas not understanding the English spoken by the people. The film makes use of a mixture of reside motion and laptop animation, however world-building was not fairly a precedence right here.
As soon as Reggie meets the street-smart Boston terrier Bug (Jamie Foxx) and realizes the extent to which Doug hated him, he resolves to seek out the person and chunk off one among his most beloved extremities. On this quest, the brand new associates are joined by two domesticated canines: Hunter (Randall Park), a timid Nice Dane, and Maggie (Isla Fisher), a sublime however earthy Australian Shepherd.
Over the following 90-plus minutes, the canines drop as many F-bombs as Pacino did in “Scarface.” Then there are the scatological jokes, every yet another outlandish than the final, none bearing the slightest tinge of wit or pleasure. (The factor about John Waters’s excessive underground comedies is that that they had, , enthusiasm.) Granted, a scene right here that takes goal on the conference of the “narrator canine” does produce a curdled snort, but it surely does so on its option to a really nihilistic punchline.
And but as that proverb warns, one sadly can’t rule out a sequel.
Strays
Rated R for relentless language, crude humor and gore. Operating time: 1 hour 33 minutes. In theaters.
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