Critics Reviews Visually, director Josh Greenbaun doesn't offer anything surprising. [Full review in Spanish] It's uneven and should be sharper than it is, but is the dog movie equivalent of Bad Santa. Very scatological and obscene, but very funny.
The abundance of raunchy jokes sometimes feels forced and falls flat. However, the film more than compensates for this with its underlying emotional resonance. Beneath the crude humor, there's a lot of heart in the relationships between the strays, and their quest for justice becomes oddly touching.
The shocking ending of The Strays exposes Neve's deceit and abandonment of her estranged children, painting her as the villain and showing the cyclical nature of trauma. Neve's departure at the end signifies the collapse of her idealized life and the beginning of a new cycle of trauma for her children.
The Strays showed us how people sometimes don't learn from their mistakes and aren't as innocent as they appear to be. The moment that Neve's new perfect life became not so perfect, she abandoned everyone in her life and chose herself once more.
The Strays' social satire is sharp enough, but its bite is softened by a messy plot and an overall lack of discipline. A wasted opportunity to entertain while making the audience think about some serious subjects, The Strays fails as social commentary or psychological thriller.
This is the reason we barely see comedy movies any more, let alone R-rated ones that don't hold back. Strays is fun and funny from beginning to end. The hit rate on the comedic attempts is high. Most of it made me laugh out loud.
Diagnosed by the Audience: Neve is occasionally seen taking unknown red pills. Considering the hallucination she experiences throughout the film, they pills might be a treatment for a mental disorder. However, some Redditors have suggested that they are actually skin bleaching pills.
Much like fellow British thriller I Came By, The Strays is getting an unintentionally timely release as Neve's story has ties to mental health struggles and an abusive relationship, topics that have become more prevalent over the past few years.
“Strays” is definitely a treat, especially for dog lovers who will howl with laughter and also cry at its empathetic understanding that we all, furry or otherwise, just want to be loved.
With the help of several other genius dogs, he discovers his own sense of self-worth and finally takes Doug down in the most brutal way possible: By ripping off Doug's genitals. The ending of Strays is a shocking one.
Later, after explaining to her family that she left Carl and Dione's father around 16 years ago, Neve drives to meet her two older children in private and reveals she walked out because their father was dangerous.
Reggie also meets Bug's dog-park friends: Hunter (voiced by Randall Park), a Great Dane who continues to wear a cone to calm his nerves, and Maggie (voiced by Isla Fisher), an Australian Shepherd with a bloodhound's sense of smell.
Fortunately for Strays 2, the film most likely won't have to deal with the scheduling issues that the original has had as Strays' release date was pushed up to August 2023 after initially being slated for earlier in the year.
Director Josh Greenbaum used real dogs instead of CGI canines for a more authentic feel, with 95% of the movie featuring real animals. "Strays" performed well with fans, earning a "B+" CinemaScore and a 73% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, despite mixed reviews from critics.
It is not just implied but shown that Cheryl, who goes by the name of Neve to her Caucasian compatriots, was disgusted with her own skin and the treatment she had received as a Black woman in London. In a drastic attempt to change her status, she dons a wig and a posh accent to further separate her from her urban past.
Strong crude sexualised material involving visual comedic scenes of sexual activity involving animals such as dogs and squirrels. A man is seen masturbating vigorously on numerous occasions. Animals' genitals are seen multiple times. It's implied that Doug is a sex offender.
Make no mistake, parents: This talking-dog movie is for the grownups. Strays, which opens in theaters on Friday, is not geared to children despite its cuddly stars. Billed as a "subversion of the dog movies we know and love," the comedy is rated R for "pervasive language, crude and sexual content, and drug use."
Not quite a cameo, but still an important contribution, was the Snoop Dogg track “Gz and Hustlas,” which plays over the closing credits — something Greenbaum says he knew he wanted early on. “I love Snoop — of course I wanted to get him in there,” he says.
Wikipedia describes The Strays as a British "horror" film. I would not classify it anywhere close to horror unless you accept the hallucinations of the main character and her possible "mental illness" as real. The Strays really is an attempt at social commentary by way of revenge fantasy (a la Quentin Tarantino).
Ian demands a divorce from Neve when Carl reveals that she tried to pay them off. After a tense game of Scrabble, Carl takes Ian into the home gym and forces him to bench too much weight, leading to Ian being crushed by the weights when Carl refuses to help.
In the present day, it is revealed that Neve is Cheryl, and Carl and Dione are indeed her children. She meets them at a diner and gives them ten thousand pounds each in order to help them back on their feet as they return to London. However, Carl and Dione break into Neve's house.
Cumulatively, the f-words and s-words alone add up to at least 260 instances. That's nearly three every minute in this 93-minute film—and that doesn't even count any of the other vulgarities. Sure, Strays has a few funny jokes about dog behavior that don't rely on references to genitals, poop or drugs.
