Strays  ★★★

EVER wondered what your dog really thinks of you?

Chances are they will love you unconditionally, just like Reggie the Terrier in Strays.

But, if you have no intention of reciprocating that love, and Bug the Boxer lays out the painful truth to your Reggie, look out.

That’s the premise of this slight, foul-mouthed and pretty amusing American comedy that uses mostly real dogs to tell the tale of Reggie’s revenge over his horrible, trailer-trash owner.

At less than 90 minutes long the film only lags around the mid-way point and is aided throughout by some great voice work from Will Ferrell and particularly Jamie Foxx.

Ferrell voices little Reggie who is under the illusion that his owner Doug (Will Forte) loves him. In reality, Doug only kept Reggie when his ex-girlfriend walked out because he didn’t watch her to have him and treats the dog badly.

Reggie, for example, thinks the game ‘Fetch and Fuck’ is great, but it’s actually Doug’s regular attempt to get rid of Reggie by driving him as far away as possible from home, tossing a ball and leaving him there.

On one occasion Doug drives Reggie for hours to the city and this time Reggie can’t immediately find his way home.

Professional stray Bug, voiced wonderfully by Foxx, takes Reggie under his wing, convincing him that Doug doesn’t love him and introducing Reggie to the freedom and joys of urinating on, eating, drinking and having sex with whatever you want.

But Reggie can’t get Doug’s betrayal out of his head and vows to find his way back to bite his former owner’s manhood off.

Bug’s friends Maggie the Collie (Isla Fisher) and Hunter the Great Dane (Randall Park) join the long journey to help Reggie exact his revenge.

As you can tell, Strays is not for kids under a certain age, particularly if you don’t want them exposed to a lot of swearing.

For the rest of us, however, it might be throw-away entertainment, but I laughed quite a bit, particularly at my favourite, the street-wise Bug.