Strays is a massive coat of matted cognitive dissonance for me. On the one paw, sometimes it was just a bad movie… on the other paw, it would nip me with clever and smart dog jokes. When the flick ended, I snarled because I’d been looking forward to tearing it to shreds but I had to admit it I wound up a little chuffed.

Strays is a very R rated raunchy talking dog comedy about a mutt whose owner hates and abandons him far from home. He joins forces with a trio of street smart strays in his incredible journey home (in order to bite his owner’s dick off).

If you think a dog saying he wants to bite his owner’s dick off is the alpha and omega of comedy, then you’ll probably love this movie. I’m uneven on my tolerance for raunch though; sometimes it works, more often it’s doesn’t. This flick is overstuffed with dick, shit, and humping jokes. It thinks cute dogs dropping F bombs is the funniest thing ever. It’s the shock collar version of comedy… ain’t it hi-larious that the collie said that naughty thing? End of joke.

And yet they included some very chuckle-worthy dog jokes that weren’t raunchy (and some, I admit, that were). I’d have to stop simmering in my righteous indignation and admit that a joke was not only funny, but kinda clever.

Plus the cheesy “Sad abandoned dog” moments were actually kind of sad.

The flick is also smart in how it acknowledges and plays with tropes of other dog movies. And that includes a particularly funny cameo from an actor who has starred in at least two other dog movies recently. It’ll be totally random if you haven’t seen those flicks which makes it funnier. 

I have to admit when I had a fun enough time in a movie that I would normally snap at. It beat its way past my movie snob grousing and delivered a decent, clever flick. It’s a tough one to recommend if you aren’t a fan of raunchy humor though. I guess what I’m saying is: beware (of dog). 

Score: 75