Strays (2023) * 1/2

Directed by:  Josh Greenbaum

Starring:  (voices of) Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher, Randall Park, Will Forte (as Doug)

Strays is a gross-out comedy which starts out on a note of animal cruelty and grows increasingly depressing as the film wears on with its tired, lame gags involving vomit, dog poop, and dogs getting high on mushrooms.   People getting high on film hasn't been funny since the days of Cheech and Chong and it isn't much funnier with dogs replacing the people.   

The plot:  Two-year-old sweet, naive terrier Reggie (voiced by Ferrell) is abused daily by the slovenly, mean, nasty Doug (Forte).   Doug only kept Reggie out of spite when his girlfriend wisely broke up with him, but he mostly tells the dog to piss off while he masturbates to porn, kicks him out of the house all day, and then abandons Reggie miles away from home in a cornfield in hopes he won't come back.  Poor Reggie thinks of this as a game called "Fetch and Fuck", because whenever Reggie comes home, Doug says, "Fuck".   While it takes Forte considerable nerve to play such a loathsome, irredeemable subhuman like Doug, these passages are not funny or entertaining in any way.   It sets Strays up on an irrecoverable path of gloominess.  

One day, Doug drives three hours to drop off Reggie in the middle of a big city alley, assuming Reggie would finally take a hint.  Reggie thinks of this as the ultimate game of "Fetch and Fuck", but is nearly mugged by two other dogs until saved by Boston terrier Bug (voiced by Foxx).  Reggie and Bug soon hook up with two other unwanted dogs named Maggie and Hunter (Fisher and Park), who like each other more than just platonically.   The dogs are all adorable.  The plot they find themselves in is not.  Reggie gradually understands that Doug is indeed a cruel, horrible man and was trying to get rid of him, not play with him.  Reggie's mission is to return home in order to bite Doug's genitalia off as payback for the poor treatment.

Along the way, the dogs find themselves in misadventures in which dog bodily functions play a huge part, and then Reggie finally makes it home (did you suspect he wouldn't?) to find Doug snarling and hurling insults at him before trying to bash him and his friends with a baseball bat.   Then, of course, Reggie takes full advantage of his chance to bite Doug in his nether regions, and not in a comical way, but a bloody one.  I suppose I can't blame Reggie for wanting to bite Doug's dong off, but the payoff doesn't work because the entire story arc is awfully vicious for a comedy.  I hope parents don't bring the kids thinking it will be a cute movie about talking animals.