Look. You cannot judge a movie for what you want it to be. You have to take it as it is, and examine how well it achieves what it wanted. Strays does exactly what it sets out to do. I wasn’t rolling with laughter, but it got the occasional chuckle. It was pleasant.

Jamie Foxx has that Jamie Foxx charisma to the extent that yes, I was a little emotionally affected by this movie. Not even tearing up levels, by any stretch, but it was something! Forte elevates rote material to something entertaining while being a detestable scumbag. Everyone in the cast showed up to do what they were paid for. Like, is it a little copaganda? Sure, but what? Am I gonna dock points off of fucking Strays for that? Is Strays the biggest thing reinforcing the police? Could Strays have been what toppled it all if they only had balls as big as their big ball dog? It’s fucking Strays! You get exactly what you expect and exactly what they set out to do.

And that’s why it gets the same rating Barbie did from me, a movie that set out to do so many ambitious things and achieved very little. I guess that evens out the end? You can’t really put my ratings on an equivalent scale like that but it was a very funny realization