Review: Strays

Strays
Cert: 15 / 89 mins / Dir. Josh Greenbaum / Trailer

So if 2023 has brought you to the place where you need The Incredible Journey meets The Secret Life Of Pets meets Ted, then director Josh Greenbaum has got you covered. This R-Rated pup comedy does exactly what it says on the tin, in a movie where the dogs saying fuck is the primary joke for an hour and half. It works well enough as a concept, and there are frequent chuckles from Dan Perrault's script but no real guffaws. If that's all you want for an hour and a half, knock yourself out.

In all fairness, the central quartet of characters voiced by Will Ferrell, Jamie Foxx, Isla Fisher and Randall Park is well balanced and reasonably fleshed out. The mix of live-action and CGI is nicely accomplished and the voice-cast is enthusiastic, but at its core the film is tired before it's properly begun. This is third studio-comedy in as many months which feels like a Judd Apatow script that's been found in a drawer after fifteen years and put into production because there was nothing else on the board.

Dick-jokes aside (so many dick-jokes), this movie is actually about the innocence of abandoned dogs, loss, companionship, trust and rising above abusive relationships, so it periodically tries to pull on the heart strings. But Greenbaum doesn't have the sincerity or courage of his convictions to do that properly*¹, and the only real enthusiasm here comes from the shrieking profanity on display in the trailer. Strays just isn't smart enough for the message it thinks it wants to convey and has little to emotionally justify its existence. But the dogs are (largely) real *² here, so it's already head and shoulders above The Meg.

Oh, but I'm taking points off for that accelerated greatest-hits montage of the most Outrageous™ gags just before the finale. If you need to tell your jokes twice to assure an audience they've enjoyed themselves, those weren't good enough the first time...

*¹ And rest assured, I am Dog-People™ and susceptible as fuck to all that. Strays just doesn't have it. ^{[ BACK ]}

*² The main dog is very cool, though. Not Will Ferrell who voices Reggie (obviously) but Sophie, the border terrier who plays him. ^{[ BACK ]}

DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Good Boys

Good Boys
Cert: 15 / 90 mins / Dir. Gene Stupnitsky / Trailer



So wait, the kid - the award-winning kid - from Room and Wonder is doing dick jokes now? Oh, okay then*¹.

Good Boys is a Raucous™ comedy directed by Gene Stupnitsky, written by him and Lee Eisenberg. So far so good. It’s about three male, best-schoolfriends desperate to appear cool and to get to a party where they know girls are going to be. Bells start ringing. It’s produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, formerly of the Superbad and Bad Neighbours parish. And now you know what the film is going to be.

And it’s often very funny. Okay it’s deliberately crass, a little try-hard in places and begins right at the Gross-Out™ stage as the trio of twelve year-olds navigate trading cards, drones, alcohol, drugs and sex toys over the course of securing their places at the party, but it is at least very funny*².

The comedic core of Jacob Tremblay, Keith L. Williams and Brady Noon as Max, Lucas and Thor respectively are solidly cast, drawing on personality archetypes found in the likes of The Hangover, and Williams shines particularly brightly. That said, it’s largely reliant on those (and many supporting) players' performances as the pacing feels like a two-hour movie that’s been condensed down to ninety minutes. It seems to cruise past its natural end-point at least twice.

As consistently amusing as Good Boys is, the film struggles for stamina after sprinting from the off, while Rogen and Goldberg’s fingerprints are all over this – even in the role of producers. You’re left with the impression that Eisenberg and Stupnitsky have crafted this to please the people who green-lit the project, rather than sating any real creative urge of their own.

Even with its prepubescent cast, Good Boys isn’t doing very much new, and I don’t think it’s got quite the heart that it wants to show. But it’s still a solid Saturday-night flick...

File this on the same shelf as Booksmart, Superbad, Mallrats and Weird Science.
Although there are firm nods to Ferris Bueller and School Of Rock in there, too.



If you're in the right frame of mind and you know what you're letting yourself in for, sure.



This is definitely a beer-and-friends movie.
Although not for your twelve-year-olds.

They'll do that when you're out.



Keith L. Williams is a rising star, here.



Try me.



Not that I heard, although there's one that's pretty close.



Level 2: Mollie Gordon's in this, and she was in that Booksmart with Billie 'Connix' Lourd.





*¹ Yeah, he made The Predator in between so what the hell, I guess? I can picture an agent saying to him "Kid, those roles will get you the Oscar for the mantlepiece, but it's the dick jokes that pay for the house around it. Now sign the damn contract."
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*² And credit where it's due, perhaps my loudest guffaw was at the sight of three children trying determinedly (and failing repeatedly) to get a child-proof cap off a pill bottle. All the better since the bottle was originally for children's vitamins (even though the one in question ends up loaded with molly). Add that to a sequence where the three kids try and cross a busy freeway as a masterclass of cinematic tension, and it's that silliness at the centre of the movie which really makes it work.
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DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Booksmart

Booksmart
Cert: 15 / 102 mins / Dir. Olivia Wilde / Trailer



Now, it would be unfair to compare Olivia Wilde's directorial debut Booksmart with the 2008 comedy, Superbad from the off. That said, Booksmart is very much like Superbad from the off, so they started it.

Set in the present, we open on the day before high school graduation, in which best friends Molly (Beanie Feldstein) and Amy (Kaitlyn Dever) realise that in studying hard to pass their exams, they've missed out on a whole lot of fun - not least because many of their contemporaries have been partying all year and have still managed to achieve similarly impressive grades. With this in mind, the pair decide to attend the one end-of-year party that everyone will be at, including their prospective crushes, in a last hurrah before Summer and college-life beckon. But getting to the party will be an adventure in itself, as Molly and Amy discover the wild side of town that's been out every night while they've been studying...

HEROINES

Even without our heroines being hormonally charged, socially awkward misfits who attract misfortune as easily as they do ridicule and the party Macguffin lending a sense of foreboding impatience throughout, yeah this is largely Superbad. But given that Greg Mottola's coming-of-age bromance is very much near the top of a crowded pile of teen-comedies (and is now over a decade old, obviously), that's neither an unusual nor a bad thing. Writing the movie around young women rather than young men is a great chance to show that dorkiness and bad decision making are gender-blind, and the audience should be likewise.

However. With Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins and Katie Silberman all on screenplay duty, Booksmart is certainly a crowded and chaotic affair, often suffering the same haphazard focusing problems as any movie with a quartet of authors. As a result, it often feels like Olivia Wilde struggles with the full grip of a script this busy. This feels like it would be a director's second or even third film - that Wilde has produced this straight out of the gate shows her ambition and commitment, if nothing else.

COCAINES

Because Booksmart begins pretty much 'on 10', there's no time to really get to know the central characters before we're thrown in at the deep end of their lives. And as we're then finding our way with Molly and Amy, much of the first act seems like white noise as we try to get up to speed.

The script isn't as consistently funny as it would perhaps like to think, although it's frequently charming even when deliberately trying to rub the viewer up the wrong way. There's a constant battle between being an emotionally candid snapshot of teenage turbulence, and not wanting to let go of the gross-out fratboy comedy roots. The film is most enjoyable when it's speaking with its own voice.

HARIBO TANGFASTICS

Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever are that voice, their chemistry effortlessly selling the nonsense, bickering, sarcasm and upfront love between best friends of any age. They are very much the Seth and Evan of this piece. Although not to be upstaged, Billie Lourd has a borderline scene-stealing role as Gigi, a psychotic party animal who's to be found around every corner waiting to make things worse. And for my money, the animated sequence in the middle could have gone on for longer. I could feel the audience's nervous confusion in the room, and I loved that.

Booksmart is bigger than the indie-energy which runs through its veins and onto the screen with abrasive camaraderie, but it's nowhere near polished or accessible enough to be a breakout hit with its cinematic release. Hopefully this will find its audience once it hits disc/streaming, but even then it's more likely to be a cult-favourite at Logan Lucky levels, rather than The Big Lebowski.

But hey, some movies aren't built to be taken too seriously, that just happens around them. Go see Booksmart and just enjoy it for the haphazard ride...

It's a bit like Superbad (I think we've covered that), with notes of Clerks and Mid90s.
Eighth Grade wishes it had this film's heartfelt adrenaline.



If you're in the right frame of mind, it is.



It is.



Difficult to say, but it should be at the top of everyone's CV.



I expect so.



There isn't.



Level 1: Lieutenant Connix is in this.







DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.

Review: Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 (2D)
Cert: U / 95 mins / Dir. Cody Cameron, Kris Pearn



Very little to say about this one, really. If you've seen the first Cloudy, you'll know pretty much what what you're getting, and the film takes that expectation and delivers nicely. It's very funny, it's very sweet, and there's enough going on to keep the kids and the adults engaged throughout.

Outstanding animation and excellently cast (and performed) voicework already put it above the other animated movie that's out at the moment, but it never quite reaches the level of greatness you feel it's aiming at. The themes are all painted very broadly and there's little in the way of subtext, but the fast-paced script and number of visual gags will make re-watching a lot of fun for quite some time.

It may rely quite heavily on puns, but Cloudy…2 has a sense of joy that's quite infectious. The film doesn't take itself too seriously, and as a result lacks the full-on emotional manipulation we're used to in this genre (a welcome change, if I'm being honest). If there was ever an animated movie which seemed happy to be classified as 'a cartoon', this is it. Enjoy.

Yeah.



I did.



I think it does.



That will depend on how eager you are to see it, ultimately.



No.



I will.



There IS.

Bill Hader is excellent as Flint Lockwood in the 'Cloudy' movies, but do you think he's got the heft to be the lead in live-action comedies?

DISCLAIMERS:
• ^^^ That's dry, British humour, and most likely sarcasm or facetiousness.
• Yen's blog contains harsh language and even harsher notions of propriety. Reader discretion is advised.
• This is a personal blog. The views and opinions expressed here represent my own thoughts (at the time of writing) and not those of the people, institutions or organisations that I may or may not be related with unless stated explicitly.