Film Review: ‘Benji’

Before Air Bud, before Beethoven, there was Benji, one of the most beloved (and financially successful) canine characters in cinema history — and yet, oddly enough, a name unfamiliar to an entire generation of kids who haven’t seen a new installment since 2004’s “Benji: Off the Leash!” That’s 14 long years ago, which means there’s no one in this film’s target audience (unless you count “kids at heart”) who was alive when the last film came out.Now, thanks to Netflix, the shaggy mutt returns to the screen (although not the big one, alas) for a “Benji” reboot that proves this particular dog has more lives than most cats, more charm than most humans and more earnings potential than the proverbial golden-egg-laying goose — which might explain why Blumhouse (the low-budget genre shingle best known for horror films like “Get Out” and “Paranormal Activity”) got behind what is essentially a remake of the 1974 original,

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