World War I survivor, silent-movie icon, and enthusiastic face-licker Rin Tin Tin was so popular a star that he very nearly won the inaugural Best Actor Oscar in 1929. In these “everything old is new again” times, Warner Bros. resuscitates the spirit of its very first screen legend with “Max,” which updates the myth of the canine superhero to soothe present-day anxieties.
Rin Tin Tin was a four-quadrant celeb, but director Boaz Yakin (“Remember the Titans”) makes no pretense at entertaining adults. When we first see Max the Belgian Malinois (a breed closely related to the German Shepherd) back from his Afghan deployment, clearly suffering from PTSD, the film feints at an allegory about injured veterans.