Advanced Search >
Help Me Search

Movies

Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade

Wide Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Limited Releases
Now In Theaters

sort by namesort by score

67 3 Idiots
47 44 Inch Chest
82 Ajami
71 American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein
73 Amreeka
75 Art of the Steal, The
43 Barefoot to Timbuktu
19 Bitch Slap
49 Blood Done Sign My Name
24 Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
76 Broken Embraces
52 Celine: Through the Eyes of the World
67 Children of Invention
65 City Island
64 Cloud 9
65 Coco Before Chanel
84 Cove, The
83 Crazy Heart
21 Crazy on the Outside
51 Creation
xx Daddy Long Legs
81 Damned United, The
57 Defendor
61 Delta
68 Departures
64 District 13: Ultimatum
72 Easier with Practice
85 Education, An
61 Exploding Girl, The
70 Eyes Wide Open
24 Falling Awake
81 Fish Tank
56 For My Father
52 Formosa Betrayed
xx From Mexico with Love
43 Frozen
xx Ghost Town
77 Ghost Writer, The
69 Girl on the Train, The
73 Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The
47 Good Guy, The
78 Greenberg
35 Happy Tears
68 Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suess
20 Harlem Aria
xx Killing Jar, The
52 Killing Kasztner
xx Kimjongilia
41 Last New Yorker, The
76 Last Station, The
47 Little Traitor, The
51 Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, The
71 Lourdes
73 Me and Orson Welles
77 Messenger, The
80 Mid-August Lunch
57 Missing Person, The
76 Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
79 Mother
50 My Name is Khan
88 Neil Young Trunk Show
49 Nine
67 North Face
64 October Country
67 Off and Running
52 Paranoids, The
40 Phyllis and Harold
49 Pop Star on Ice
49 Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The
74 Prodigal Sons
xx Promised Lands (Re-release)
89 Prophet, A
76 Red Riding Trilogy, The
63 Runaways, The
32 Saint John of Las Vegas
83 Secret of Kells, The
69 September Issue, The
36 Serious Moonlight
57 Severe Clear
63 Shinjuku Incident, The
xx Shutterbug
77 Single Man, A
76 Still Bill
34 Stolen
xx Suicide Girls Must Die!
52 Tales from the Script
74 Terribly Happy
74 That Evening Sun
47 To Die for Tano
19 To Save a Life
63 Toe to Toe
69 Town Called Panic, A
54 Until the Light Takes Us
60 Videocracy
84 Vincere
66 Waiting for Armageddon
45 White on Rice
82 White Ribbon
xx White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights, The
43 Women in Trouble
xx Word is Out
64 Yellow Handkerchief, The
64 Young Victoria, The

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Benji Off the Leash

EMAILPRINTMulberry Square Releasing

Benji Off the Leash reviews
49
3.6 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 5 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >

Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Family/Kids

Written by: Joe Camp

Directed by: Joe Camp

Release Date:
Theatrical: August 20, 2004
DVD: December 28, 2004

Running Time: 97 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

RATING: PG for thematic elements and some mild language

Starring Nate Bynum, Lincoln Hoppe, Chris Kendrick, Randall Newsome, Duane Stephens, Christy Summerhays, Nick Whitaker, and Scott Wilkinson

A band of unlikely comrades, brought together by the least likely of the bunch, for a common, courageous purpose. Things will change. Lives will be saved. Because Benji is off the leash! (Mulberry Square Productions)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

75

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Not one of the great dog movies, but it's a good one, abandoning wall-to-wall cuteness for a drama about a homeless puppy.

Read Full Review >
70

The New York Times Dave Kehr

After a summer of computer-generated blockbusters, the amiably low-tech Benji: Off the Leash! seems like a breath of fresh air.

Read Full Review >
63

USA Today Claudia Puig

Falls flat, enlivened only by the performances of its two charismatic lead dogs. The story is heavy-handed, and the human performances are, at their worst, caricatured.

Read Full Review >
60

Washington Post Donna Peremes

The overall unevenness of tone is the movie's biggest flaw, but the slo-mo scenes of doggie derring-do are quite funny.

Read Full Review >
60

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

It's sweet-natured, soothing and there's a behind-the-scenes/blooper reel at the end that will reassure anyone worried about the animals' treatment during filming.

Read Full Review >
60

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

It's clumsy, but also strangely refreshing. To children raised on "Spy Kids" and "SpongeBob SquarePants," it may look as primitive as a daguerreotype, but never underestimate the persuasive powers of a cute animal.

Read Full Review >
50

LA Weekly Robert Abele

Yes, Joe Camp has gone meta. It's hard to not feel a measure of warmth for the determined optimism of his enterprise, especially since he hasn't lost the touch for cute dog antics.

Read Full Review >
50

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Benji is back, which is good news for youngsters and pet-loving families. Film lovers perhaps should steer clear, however, as hokey melodrama and sloppy comedy fill the gaps between neat dog tricks.

Read Full Review >
50

Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust

Unfortunately, the new film does not live up to the low-key charm of the original. It's essentially a long-form public service announcement extolling the virtues of animal adoption and decrying the scourge of unfettered dog breeding.

Read Full Review >
50

Boston Globe Catherine Foster

Has a raggy charm, like the dogs, and a solid moral ending. For a late-summer children's film, it does the job.

Read Full Review >
50

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

All the Benji productions have had a high corn content, but in this one, even the corn is cheap.

Read Full Review >
50

Variety Joe Leydon

A mildly pleasant, aggressively retro kidpic that should please undemanding moppets without unduly boring their parents.

Read Full Review >
42

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Jane Horwitz

Love of dogs is key, because the amateurish acting, writing and production values in this independently made film feel more like the stuff of home movies than Hollywood.

Read Full Review >
40

Austin Chronicle Nick Barbaro

The sentiment is saccharin; the plot is … well, let's be generous and say unambitious.

Read Full Review >
40

Village Voice Ed Halter

This unwarranted iteration of the '70s shaggy-dog tale pales in entertainment value compared to its website, which features a rant from the mutt's creator, Joe Camp.

Read Full Review >
38

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Disco may still be dead, but Benji: Off the Leash! resurrects another dubious artifact of the '70s - the crudely made family films starring that lovable mutt.

Read Full Review >
25

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

A dreary, distasteful exercise, "Off the Leash'' favors dogs over humans, framing canine high jinks with an ugly story of domestic abuse.

Read Full Review >

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 3.6 (out of 10) based on 5 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jay H. gave it a5:
Typical Benji family film, overly sentimental with acting below par. Of course the animals are adorable and do cute things. Light entertainment, not very memorable.

Mark B. gave it a3:
Joe Camp: Off The Deep End or Off His Rocker...you decide. I missed this in theaters (as, apparently, everyone else did, too)...but my very pleasant memories of the independent family filmmaker's charming 1974 original led me to rent out the DVD...only to watch Camp perform complete doggie-doo all over them. This is a remarkably convoluted, ineptly filmed, surprisingly unpleasant mess that focuses more on the villain, a dog breeder who abuses his wife and kid about as much as he does his animals, than on the lead canine and his pal, a shaggier pooch with the admittedly unforgettable monicker of Lizard Tongue. Far too intense (read: unsuitably nasty) to let your kids watch, not only because of the aforementioned puppy abuse (why is it that even GOOD dog films such as My Dog Skip, Shiloh and the original Lassie Come Home feel compelled to feature scenes of dogs being kicked around?), but also because of repeated shots of a sick female dog sweating, oozing pus, etc., this tries unsuccessfully for comic relief with a pair of cloddish, stumblebum dogcatchers right out of the straight-to-video Air Bud flicks. (At least, unlike the Air Buds, this doesn't waste the talents of Cynthia Stevenson in the thankless mom role, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.) I'll give it a 3, which is one or two more points than it truly deserves, only because its subject, the cruelty of mass puppy breeding, is such a valid one...and, to be completely fair, my cat, who sat and watched the whole thing with me, would probably rate it higher, if only because he figured out early on that the dogs were on the other side of the TV screen and wouldn't be jumping out to attack him.

Peppermint Pappy gave it a 10:
An incredible, nay, life changing movie extravaganza! After all the dissapointing movies this summer, like Spiderman 2, The Bourne Spy 2, And Harry Potter 3, here comes one movie, near the end of the summer, that makes it feel like the real "dog days" of summer are here! But in a good way! This movie is full of great fun and excitement! Who can forget the wacky and zany jet ski scene? I can't! One of the most talked about sequels, and it truly rocks! Kids and adults alike will laugh and giggle along with benji in this touching soon-to-be-classic! Go see it NOW!!!!!

Popular on CBS sites: College Signing Day | March Madness | TV | iPhone | Cell Phones | Video Game Reviews | Free Music

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy (UPDATED) | Terms of Use