Hell and Back (2015)

WARNING: THE LINK TO THE TRAILER OF 'HELL AND BACK' CONTAINS STRONG LANGUAGE AND INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR.VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

Two best friends set out to rescue their pal after he's accidentally dragged to Hell.
(Source- Imdb.com)

Hell and Back Trailer- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXIPHaRq6WU

A movie that caught my eye on Netflix was this claymation adult comedy adventure called Hell and Back. It was created with the help of directors Tom Gianas and Ross Shuman. The story for this hour and nine minute piece centers around two teenage boys named Remy (Nick Swardson) and Augie (T.J Miller) who must enter the diabolic world of Hell in order to save their friend, Curt (Rob Riggle) from the hands of The Devil (Bob Odenkirk). The pair of boys are forced into wacky predicaments along the way as they attempt to bring their friend and themselves back to the Earth.

Did this movie give me a hell of a good time or was it just a hellish experience to go through?

To answer that question, watching Hell & Back was literally like going through hell and back. A few seconds into this movie and I knew I made a horrible mistake choosing to watch it, but given that it was so short, I persevered anyways.

I went into watching this feature without looking into the rating for it, so I was surprised to hear such vulgar language coming from the characters. Yet it wasn't the language that downgraded this movie, it was how they used it.

Hell & Back uses their dirty humor as a crutch. They think if they can say the F word a thousand times in one minute, that counts for good material. They believe that if they make a clever joke about how an old woman's private parts are worn out like sandpaper then audiences will burst into tears from the absolute genius comparison.

The constant dirty jokes get worn out very fast and having basically every single character behave so inappropriately, it gives off the impression that they're just the same type of person just with different appearances.

This leads me into talking about the main characters: Remy, Augie and...Curt? To me, Curt didn't even feel like a main character with what little personality he had to him. He just does nothing but chit chat with demons as his friends are coming to his rescue. There is little sign of him genuinely concerned for his well-being, he doesn't wonder where his friends are at all, it's like he gave up before he got a chance to fight and simply accepted his fate as the devil's prisoner.

Remy and Augie on the other hand have some development, and by some I mean just a teaspoon more than Curt. Plus, this development doesn't really appear until more than halfway through the movie where they reveal their insecurities and troubles on life and themselves.

This would have been really interesting to go in depth with; the writers could have even made one of them debate whether they'd find it nicer to be in the eternal world of suffering or return to their insufferable lives. However, the inner conflict that Remy and Augie have within themselves is only mentioned about once and presented in a way that seems like the audience should just ignore what they were saying, like they were just blowing smoke.

Side characters like Deema (Mila Kunis) and Orpheus (Danny McBride) were apart of a very stereotypical side plot that one could predict from a mile away. Their story also overshadows the main plot and you grow more worried over what would happen to them rather than the main characters.

There is also a side plot involving The Devil, who by the way was very annoying. I get that the writers were going for the literal opposite of what a devil is; but this devil was in no way charming and his voice was so ear-grating, I couldn't stand him.

The Devil reminded me of another devil from a different cartoon called 'South Park'. If you know of this popular adult show, you probably know of their version of the devil. He's very flamboyant, sometimes bratty and he went through human problems like love and wanting to explore new worlds. But the writers of South Park learned to give or take with his personality, he wasn't always a brat and he wasn't always flamboyant, they knew to reel back these traits and let his evil nature come to life so the viewers know exactly how he ended up being a leader of his eternal hell. In fact, showing of mix of how unnaturally sensitive he can be while still showing off his cruel personality makes him a very likable character.

Hell & Back's devil acted like he was trying to be evil. What's the most evil thing he does? He screams at people...everything else he tries to do fails miserably and he behaves like a nerdy kid who just can't get what he wants. We all have our idea of what a devil is supposed to be like, but this one is not it. He was a pathetic excuse for the prince of darkness.

The world of hell is also not as creative as I'd like it to be; the souls of the dead look exactly the same and have no creative appearance to them and despite the movie addressing all of these naughty and gross humor, they really don't show the extreme torture that you'd expect out of Hell other than poking poor souls with a pitchfork. The scenery is also very dark and boring; nothing seemed to catch my eye. I suppose that's what's so bad about Hell, nothing exciting to see in it at all.

The claymation looked ugly to me, especially on the three main boys. The lines around their mouths make them look older than they're supposed to be. The character movement also felt stiff and didn't seem to flow like a normal human would.

I've learned recently that claymation takes a lot of time and effort to be perfected and it can be very difficult to make a frame-by-frame shot of the characters moving normally, but I've seen it done very well in other claymations like 'Coraline' and 'The Nightmare before Christmas', so it's not an impossible feat.

I think the animators were trying to get this movie out in time for the Halloween season, so they settled for this final product instead of pushing themselves to do more with it.

Frankly, I'm sure they were adamant about debuting this movie in October not just for the obvious Halloween themes, but so their jokes wouldn't become dated. Every other joke in this movie refers to popular media culture, items, and locations like 'Mamma Mia', Dippin Dots, and even the common street name: Martin Luther King Dr.

Wait till five or ten years pass, most of these references would fly by the viewer's head and it'll only confuse them and they'd have to look up what the characters are talking about and why is it so funny.

One of the worst things you can do is NOT make your movie timeless. A person from 2016 may get the joke about how Augie looks like the fat kid from 'The Goonies' but it won't be likely for the person in 2033 to get that joke right off the bat.

Hell & Back is a rushed production that feels like it crams three stories in one. The main characters all seem like carbon copies of one another aside from their looks. It gives no time for the characters to really interact with each other before they are thrown into conflict, so we can't feel how strong their bond becomes and how they change because of this experience. Some characters that might appear useful actually don't do much except be an extra set of lips to spout inappropriate humor down our throats. This film is an overload of media references that barely anyone would know of in the future, or even now for some people. It also has poorly made animation, making the characters really look fake and stiff like tiny action figures.

Poor protagonist, very poor antagonist, simplistic side characters, boring scenery, and predictable plot. I would rate this a 1 out of 5 stars. Even if you don't mind dirty humor, I do not think anyone would find this movie entertaining and I do not recommend Hell & Back to anyone ever.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!! 
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Ugh...10 seconds in and I already regret this.

The fortune teller is making fun of the boy's weight...it's going to be one of these movies, huh?

There's a dirty joke every minute! I can guess when they say something bad before it even comes out of their mouth.

Knowing that the devil doesn't cry until he gets sexually assaulted by a tree, why does the book show the devil crying before all of these events happen?

The pizza joke was weak...and it wasn't funnier a second time. It doesn't even make sense, if the customer gets tricked into believing that there is pizza then okay. But in both scenes, there's a huge line for the Pizza hut/Taco Bell, and the poor soul behind the one in front definitely heard that there's no pizza. So how would he and all the others behind him get tricked the same way if they can clearly notice how the one in front got tricked?

We only see Deema's mom (Durmessa) once and a majority of her scene shows her drunk and sloppy, so I really can't take her seriously when she suddenly tells Deema not to see Orpheus like she's a caring mother.

The movie could have done more with the demon drink that Remy and Augie got high off of. Such as use it for a final battle, instead of Demma throwing panties everywhere.

Okay...so Orpheus went to Hell to save his lover...why did he stay there? Did he ever get her? Was it Barb and she was in Heaven the whole time and that's why he stayed because he couldn't find her? I'm so confused...and why would Deema be purple if her mom is blue? Orpheus would have had to be red skinned or purple himself to make a purple demon baby.

Oh yeah, Curt is still here.

Where is Deema getting the panties from? If you want to seductively get rid of your enemies, spread your legs, flash your audience, do a strip tease. For a movie so vulgar, it seems like they're afraid to take that extra step.

What was the point of Barb the angel dancing like that?

'The one that got away' What do you mean? Orpheus never mentioned her, unless she's the one you were looking for in Hell, I am so confused with his backstory.

I thought Orpheus said he made his table out of the tree that assaulted him...and the tree is played by the same guy who plays Bob from 'Bob's Burgers'. Great...

So Barb and Orpheus ended up on Earth too or are people just dressed up as them for the picture? It's probably them, so why does the movie end on them? They were side characters and on top of that, we didn't know they had a thing for each other till the last 20 minutes of the movie. Out of all of the stories told, theirs was the weakest so why focus on them for the final scene as if they were the most important?