Benji
Benji
PG | 16 March 2018 (USA)
Benji Trailers

Two school kids strike up a friendship with an orphaned puppy named Benji. When danger befalls them and they end up kidnapped by robbers who are in over their heads, Benji and his scruffy sidekick come to the rescue.

Reviews
Protraph

Lack of good storyline.

... View More
Mjeteconer

Just perfect...

... View More
Glimmerubro

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

... View More
Bea Swanson

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

... View More
wowyoursis

Beautiful graphic, rich characters and refreshing mainstream family freandly animal theme. DELIGHTFUL, ENCHANTING STORY. I was not expecting this movie can be that good to watch together with my lover. I really love the hidden plot of Benji and that big stray puppy. I was smiling when I see them get along so well. The story line of the title was very clear, logical and even the desolated mysterious sceneries amazed me with surprises. This is not a that old-school family film. It will give you smile and enlighten you with delicate arrangement of its movie settings.

... View More
georgezahartzis

I was expecting more, having seen the original version.

... View More
markj-02556

This film is about a dog called Benji, who becomes friends with two children, who happened to get kidnapped by two over there heads robbers, and Benji decides to attempt to find them before any serous harm can come to them.Benji is written and directed by Brandon Camp (Love Happens). It stars Gabriel Bateman (Lights Out), Darby Camp (Big Little Lies) and Kiele Sanchez (A Perfect Getaway).First of all, Camp directs this film in a way the elevates it from the casual kids film, he decides to direct things from the perspective of the dog, it doesn't always work, but most of the time I think it works quite well. Also it is a dark story for a kids film, and I have to commend this film for giving a dark concept to a film made for kids aged 8 to 10. The score by Kostas Christides (Worlds Apart) is really good as well.But I would never even think of showing this film to anybody or watching it again because of many things. The writing is appalling, some lines don't even make any sense, at one point there is a reference to the film The Warriors (1979). None of the acting is good, I don't know weather it was just the bad writing which trust me, this dialogue I doubt Meryl Streep couldn't even pull off, or bad choices that the crew of the film made, or both. This film is bad, just bad. DON'T WATCH IT.3/10

... View More
sddavis63

I only found out that there was a 2018 version of this movie when I looked up the 1974 version of the story on Netflix. This new version is a Netflix production, and you can't help avoid the tendency to compare it to the original version so it's very hard to let it stand on its own. Compared to the 1974 movie, this "Benji" is a much darker movie from the beginning. Where the '74 version opened with the wonderful theme song "I Feel Love" - sung by Charlie Rich - this one opens with a menacing animal control truck rounding up strays to take them to the pound. Where the '74 version spent a lot of time letting us follow Benji, learning his daily routine and even getting a sense of fun as we learned about all the various relationships that Benji had developed with various people, this one seems rushed - giving us very little about Benji's life, but pushing us very quickly into the kidnapping narrative.Yes. That part's the same . Benji gets befriended by a young brother and sister, whose parent (a single mother this time rather than a single father) refuses to let them keep him. The kids get kidnapped and it's up to Benji to convince mom to follow him so that he can make sure they get home safe. I watched the '74 version with my daughter (who's 13) a few days ago. Today, the day of its release on Netflix, we watched this one. We both agreed that this movie lacks the fun of the original; the charm. Her assessment was that this Benji (the dog, not the movie) didn't have as much "personality" as the old Benji. That's not a bad way of summing it up. He's certainly cute - and the ending is classic "tug at your heartstrings" stuff that only a cute dog can bring out in you. And I would say that the human performances are better in this one than in the '74 movie. But I'm still not convinced that remaking it was a good idea on Netflix's part. And, to be honest, one of the best things about the '74 movie was "I Feel Love." Here, we get a truncated version of that song at the very end before they cut it off and return to some song whose words and title I can't even remember that was written for this, I guess. That was one of the biggest disappointments of all.If I were asked, I'd definitely recommend the '74 original over this one any day. (5/10)

... View More