''Benji'' is a 2018 American

adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme spo ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by Brandon Camp, and produced by

Blumhouse Productions Blumhouse Productions (; also known as BH Productions or simply BH) is an American film and television production company founded in 2000 by Jason Blum. It is known mainly for producing horror films, such as '' Paranormal Activity'', '' Insid ...

. The film is a reboot of the 1974 film of the same title, which was directed by Camp's father

Joe Joe or JOE may refer to: Arts Film and television * ''Joe'' (1970 film), starring Peter Boyle * ''Joe'' (2013 film), starring Nicolas Cage * ''Joe'' (TV series), a British TV series airing from 1966 to 1971 * ''Joe'', a 2002 Canadian animated ...

. It stars

Gabriel Bateman Gabriel Michael Bateman (born September 10, 2004) is an American actor. He is best known for starring in numerous horror films, including as Robert in '' Annabelle'' (2014), Martin Wells in '' Lights Out'' (2016), Andy Barclay in '' Child's Play' ...

and

Darby Camp Darby Eliza Camp (born July 14, 2007) is an American actress. Her career had begun through her mother, an actress herself. Camp's breakout role came in HBO's '' Big Little Lies'' (2017–2019) in the recurring role of Chloe Adaline Mackenzie, ...

Jason Blum Jason Ferus Blum "Jason Ferus Blum was born in LA in 1969 to Shirley Neilsen, an art professor, and Irving Blum, an art dealer" (; born 1969) is an American film and television producer. He is the founder and CEO of Blumhouse Productions, whic ...

served as a producer through his

label. The film was released on March 16, 2018 by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

. It was also released theatrically in China.

Plot

A dog comes to the rescue and helps heal a broken family when a boy and his sister stumble into serious danger. The dog stays with the family, and then he tries to save the family by helping him with troubles.

Cast

as Carter Hughes *

as Frankie Hughes *

Kiele Sanchez Kiele Michelle Sanchez ( ; born October 13, 1977) is an American actress who starred in the A&E Network drama '' The Glades''. Previously, she had starred as Anne Sorelli in The WB comedy-drama ''Related'' and as Nikki Fernandez on the main cast ...

as Whitney Hughes * Gralen Bryant Banks as Sam King *

Will Rothhaar William Edward Lamar "Will" Rothhaar (born January 12, 1987) is an American actor. Early life Rothlaar was born in New York City, the son of Michael Rothhaar and Nancy Linehan Charles, both of whom are playwrights, actors and directors. He br ...

as Syd Weld *

Angus Sampson Angus Sampson (born 1979) is an Australian actor and filmmaker. He is best known for his performances in the ''Insidious'' film series, ''The Mule'', '' Mad Max: Fury Road'', and the Peabody-winning second season of '' Fargo''. Early life Samp ...

as Titus Weld * Jerod Haynes as Lyle Burton * Lacy Camp as Officer * Jim Gleason as Captain Newsome * Brady Permenter as Brute * James W. Evermore as Hot Dog Vendor * Tom Proctor as Cajun Captain * Arthur J. Robinson as Mr. Okra * Cooper as Benji * Rott as Himself * Mongrel as Herself *

Robbie Daymond Robert Daymond Howard (né Niles; born March 11, 1982) is an American voice actor who is mostly known for his roles in audiobooks, video games, and animation, best known for voicing Jesse Cosay in the second season of '' Infinity Train'', Spider ...

as The Voice of

Benji Benji is a fictional character created by Joe Camp. He has been the focus of several movies from 1974 through the 2000s. It is also the title of the first film in the ''Benji'' franchise. Benji is a small, lovable mixed-breed dog with an un ...

Kevin Michael Richardson Kevin Michael Richardson (born October 25, 1964) is an American actor. Known for his distinctively deep voice, he has mostly voiced villainous characters in animation and video games. In film, Richardson voiced Goro in ''Mortal Kombat'' (1995) ...

as The Voice of Mongrel

Production

On May 21, 2016

announced a reboot of the 1974 film ''

'' which would be directed by Brandon Camp with

starring in the film.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

on the film began in October 2016 in New Orleans.

Release

The film was released on March 16, 2018, by Netflix. The film served as Blumhouse Productions' first film to be released as a family film.

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gave the film an approval rating of based on reviews. As of March, 2020,

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gave the film a weighted average score of 53 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". It grossed $585,333 at the Chinese box office.

References

External links

* 2018 films American drama films Benji Films about dogs Films about child abduction in the United States Films about pets Films shot in New Orleans Films produced by Jason Blum Blumhouse Productions films English-language Netflix original films Reboot films 2018 drama films 2010s English-language films Films directed by Brandon Camp 2010s American films {{2010s-drama-film-stub