The main driving force behind the comedy “Strays” is that all these dogs curse up a storm. Isn’t that funny? The short answer is sometimes, but mostly not really. It becomes tiring very quickly. There are some cute moments and even some real laugh out loud ones too. The ones that really get you going are not even when the dogs are swearing. It’s a shame they did not try to bring more of those humorous moments into the film.

The special effects in “Strays” is nothing to note. The opening scene shows Reggie chasing after butterflies that looked liked they were created on a home PC. All the dogs speak similarly to the animal in the Oscar winning picture, “Babe”. The dogs mouths open and shut as they talk much in the way humans do. Unfortunately, the movement looks very robotic or the way the mouth open and shuts on a ventriloquist dummy.

“Strays” tried to bring a little emotional core to it as well, but only a small success is accomplished.   Playing sad music on an emotional scene never helps, but it still gets a little inner feelings going. There is nothing really new here. A story that has been told before, just in a R-rated package. Could have been better, but certainly could have been worse.

2 Swords