Hell and Back

source: Hell and Back

Hell & Back truly does have an all star. We have Mila Kunis, Susan Sarandon, Danny Mcbride, Rob Riggle, Nick Swardson, T.J. Miller, Jennifer Coolidge, J.B. Smoove, Michael Pena, Brian Posehn, David Koechner, and more. Sadly we do not get an all star movie. Hell & Back has some of the workers behind Robot Chicken. I think Robot Chicken is a decent show. On the other hand, we honestly in my opinion have a not so good movie. I personally didn't find it funny, and in my opinion, Robot Chicken is much better. The movie has some nice claymation/stop motion animation behind it. But, the movie itself falls short. The story is there, the talent is there, but the jokes are completely absent. I know comedy is very difficult to write. Writing comedy isn't like writing other films. For instance, a horror movie can have a loose story, but amazing practical effects. With comedy it's either funny or it isn't. I believe this movie could have been much better, and I truly wanted to enjoy it. I personally wouldn't pay $ to see this. Wait until it is streaming or something. I don't even know if I can say this legally, but you can just bootleg this sh*t, if you want to see it. However, I saw the whole film on Youtube for free, and it really isn't worth the time. So these are my final Bitchin' Buddha thoughts on Hell & Back. With some new and clever jokes, this film could have gotten two thumbs up, and have been a cult classic. If you like this film, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I believe the jokes could have just been a little better. I believe Hell & Back earns a... 4/10. This review is brought to you by Boogie Buddha, and remember, don't just get down, but get Boogie. Thank you for reading and viewing. I wish you an amazing day as always. :)

"Hell and Back" is one of the weirder stop motion films I have ever seen. This is not because of its visuals or choices per se, but because I'm not sure who it's for. It's not for children (Seriously, don't let a child watch this accidentally) and it's really not for teens either. Though much of the humor is more juvenile, the film is so self-hating and needlessly dire that it seems to be geared more towards exactly no one. Directed by Ross Shuman and Tom Gianas, "Hell and Back" is a little seen and greatly hated venture that will remain a blight on all those involved. The story follows three men (?) who work at a pier carnival, and have been best friends since childhood. Played by Nick Swarsdon, TJ Miller, and Rob Riggle, they seem to be ridiculously childish in their approach to life, but love each other like brothers. Two of the friends make a blood oath in front of a book with a crying devil, which sends one of them to Hell. The other two follow him to the bowels of the beast and try to save him from his untimely fate. The film delves into their misery right off the bat and makes several jokes, including one about an old woman's *, and is preceded by homophobia. While all those involved are accomplished (Mila Kunis, Bob Odenkirk, Susan Sarandon etc.) none of them are working with much, and therefore most of the jokes fall flat. The only time when Orpheus' jokes really land is when Nick Swarsdon's character gets off a zinger or characters are bantering. Otherwise a lot of this is simply obnoxious. It's unclear what is up with the Devil's facade, why we need a shot of Mila Kunis' purple devil in nothing but a tank top and underwear, why Orpheus is such a tool, why there is a distended running joke about male rape via a tree, or why the ending is so swift and easy, making the entire film pointless. There are some good jokes peppered here and there but for the most part everyone involved is just too good for this movie. I seriously want to know what the filmmakers are holding over Susan Sarandon for her to even think about giving voice to the angel Barb. Besides getting to see some pretty great stop motion and hear some okay one-liners, there's no reason you have to see this film.

It is a mystery to me how anyone could have looked at this script, then thought it might be a good idea to hire good voice actors and go through the painstakingly process of creating a stop-motion animation. The result is the cinematic equivalent of building a house on sand. Only one joke in the entire movie made me laugh. Every other joke was some form of gross-out-joke, sexual joke or 'it is funny because they swear' kind of joke. Not that I have trouble with humor that does this, but not only the entire movie is based on that kinds of jokes, they are also written so poorly. It feels like this script was coughed up by a pair of stoned film students as a side project. There isn't even really a story to speak of, just a series of loosely connected scenes that have a vague resemblance of a plot. The movie actually gets better for a while, if you set your internal commentary to those two film students writing their script: "Dude... and the the devil is like... putting then into the trap door, because his hot angel girlfriend he tries to impress is coming to visit him... and then the angel says she is looking for those dudes, but they are already gone and as he opens the trap door again, there is all sorts of funny stuff that comes back up..."

I found it to be an original idea, the humour was bother messed up and brilliantly funny. The dialogue flowed wonderfully. I truly enjoyed this movie. I loved the animation, the detail to the background, the voice acting. One of the best comedies I've seen in a long time. I highly suggest watching this!

The entire 3 stars from my review goes to the visual artists behind this film. There is some creative art to be found, especially in the hell dimension. Interestingly, the sets and camera positions looked like they were made for a point-and-click adventure game. I am not sure what that is all about, but it all looks good. As for the rest of the film, me and my partner both eventually walked out on it...well, as much as you can walk out on a movie in the confines of your own living room. The writing is so atrociously talentless and the attempts at dirty jokes are so strikingly unfunny that one can only conclude that the script was written by a couple of middle-aged construction workers, who don't care at all for writing but have agreed to quickly write something because they were given 5 buks to do so. The cast of the film has some notable names, and the performances are not terrible, but you can tell why the actors did not promote this film and why it has faded into obscurity. Please don't let it come back from Hell.

Naive and x rated . Would never pay to watch it. Incoherent story line . Most dialogue was inappropriate. Not recommended for children

I have never written a review on this website or published one on any website or forum ever before. But I watched this film because I was bored, and it's cold and frosty where I'm at right now. The first ten minutes of the film were very off putting. I found myself thinking "Yeah, I'd need a quarter of weed to watch this and get any value out of it". But I didn't have anything better to do so I figured I'd might as well give it a chance. I am glad I gave it that chance. It only has an aggregated score of 5.3 on this website, and I can see why. This is the type of film that came out 2 generations too late. If it had been released when my Dad was not quite my age, along with animations like "Fritz The Cat", it would have developed a cult following. It might very well do so. It has incredibly crude humour. Any expectations of subtlety should be eschewed before perusal of this flick. Orpheus, the Greek artists/poet/singer/bard/etc. is featured, and it is referenced that he is anally raped by a sentient tree at a young age in the woods of what I assume to be either Greece or Hell (which would be paradoxical). This film is a relief from 99 percent of the crap that theaters are releasing nowadays and it's equally refreshing in that you can take it at face value. To sum it up: search up "Mourning Wood performed by Orpheus", on YouTube. It's the link of him singing a song from his experience. If you like it, you'll probably like the movie. If not, you won't. It's like Crawdaddies, you love em, or you hate em. 9/10. Refreshing.

This movie is terrible but it's one of the best terrible movies I have ever seen. It was absolutely hilarious although immature. I don't think it deserves as low of a rating as it got simply because it was quite a good movie. I'm sure this film is directed at some low brow humor but it actually is really good. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, this movie is really, freaking good. If you like movies you don't have to pay too much attention to but still have a good time, you'll love this. It's original, it's funny and hey, it's better than anything Adam Sandler's doing these days. The crude sexual humor gets slightly annoying at times and you feel like you should tell these people that hey, you don't have to try that hard, but it really is a witty portrayal and like I've said too many times already. It's actually really funny.

I really don't know exactly how "not good" it is because I could only stand about ten minutes of it. Cliché from the get go, it seems to be a raunch fest of bad potty jokes and low sexual humor. I'm pretty sure I would have thought it was lame when I was in junior high. The movie was so shallow, I have to make stuff up to get the required five lines to submit a review.