Hell and Back
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 "PIECE OF SHIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!!!!! - Curt. An apt. way to describe this movie.
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Hell and Back is a 2015 stop-motion adult animated film directed by Tom Gianas, who also wrote the film, and Ross Shuman. It was produced by ShadowMachine Films and distributed by Freestyle Releasing. The film was released on October 2, 2015.
Plot
When their friends break a blood oath over a mint, a portal opens and sucks him into Hell. Two best friends risk everything and go through the portal to save from demons and the devil himself.
Why It Won't See You There
- To get the elephant out of the room: The main plot is downright ridiculous and stupid. It's basically about Curt getting sent to Hell, and Remy and Augie going to find him there. Why did he get sent to Hell in the first place? He took a mint from Remy and promised to pay it back with a blood oath, only to them not have a mint to pay him back with. This is a downright nonsensical and stupid reason for someone to get sent to Hell. Not to mention how making a blood oath to trade mints with someone else is just as nonsensical as someone being dragged into Hell for not being able to complete said deal.
- The story itself isn't just bad, but most of the major plot points are constantly thrown in with no foreshadowing, build-up, or explanation. The plot itself wobbles around on what it wants to be and what will happen next so much that it makes it feel like they just made up the story as they went along, in the words of PhantomStrider.
- Despite being aimed at adults, the movie itself is far from genuinely mature in terms of tone or how the adult concepts are presented as it feels the constant need to be immature and brash in its attempts to be edgy, in which results of having more appealing for teenagers rather than actual adult audiences.
- There's an enormous number of profanity-related remarks and swearing to the point where they make up a large amount of the film's actual dialogue as more often than not, whenever the characters talk, they will most likely throw in a swear word. As a result, the swear words themselves lose their meaning or any sense of them being funny.
- None of the characters are likeable as they're all mean-spirited, dull, or cynical. A common stereotype and cliché about media that's aimed at adults being that all the characters have to act mean-spirited and spiteful towards one another.
- While the film has a large amount of truly mature and serious concepts, they're present in the film not for the sake of advancing the story of for symbolism, but for the sake of attempting to be hip and edgy and warrant its R-rating (i.e., sex, drugs, Hell, demons).
- Speaking of the characters as previously mentioned in WIWSYT#3.2, they're all incredibly unpleasant, unsympathetic, and as also previously mentioned, range from mean-spirited to dull and cynical, if not all three of them.
- Remy is very selfish and inconsiderate of those around him. He constantly acts like a jerk to his "friends" and doesn't even seem invested in actually saving Curt until Augie gets him to. Even then, he commented that it better be quick, meaning that he still didn't truly care about getting Curt back, although to be fair, Curt isn't a saint himself. His humor is also absolutely low-brow and immature as with most of the attempts of humor in this film.
- Augie serves as little more for the movie than a walking fat joke and enormous punching bag as he's constantly belittled and mocked by the other characters, particularly Remy and Curt for being overweight. Any other personality he has is him being the more cautious and more apprehensive foil the Remy's brash and rude nature, which has already been done to death in movies and TV shows alike.
- Curt is a character who somehow manages to be even worse than Remy; given all that's been said about Remy previously, that's really saying a lot. His refusal to return a mint to Remy already started the incredibly stupid chain of events in the movie, not to mention how it's also not a good first impression of his character. He later continues to stoop lower by making fun of the Devil's business and art after his arrival in Hell. It gets to the point where Remy's unwillingness to help him is almost actually justified had he have not been a douchebag himself!
- Deema, a half-demon girl from Hell, serves little to no purpose to the real plot of the movie other than serving as the film's "strong female character" as she's the only major female character in the movie since she has almost no real personality established in the entirety of the movie's runtime other than "being a girl".
- The Devil, the main antagonist of the film, is an incredibly inconsistent character, as shown when Curt arrives in Hell as he constantly goes from saying that he will kill Curt and then acting nice towards him. For example, one of the first glimpses we get into his character is him showing Curt his art, and then suddenly stopping and saying, "That's your first punishment in Hell." While that was kind of understandable given how Curt had been mocking his art, there's still the fact that he continues doing things like that throughout the film again, and again, and again to the point where it becomes inexcusable. Any other established traits of his is him being a wimp and his desire to have sex with Barb the Angel.
- Orpheus might just be the worst character in the entirety of the film; given the other previously discussed characters, that is saying so much. His dialogue is downright horrendous, his backstory is absolutely nonsensical, one of which that he constantly rubs in the other characters' faces, and his personality in general is him being a misogynistic and egotistical jerk. There's also a scene where he sings, and it's downright horrendous.
- The animation, while it clearly had some effort and dedication put into it, still looks rather unappealing for the most part. Sometimes, the characters move in a slow way or have an uncanny wooden puppet-like design in their faces.
- Any attempts of humor are downright horrendous due to the fact that they're completely centered around swearing, cruelty, or things that are completely tasteless. They don't even fit into black comedy territory due to the fact that they simply aren't funny nor comedic. Instead, they're simply sadistic, tasteless, and completely immature. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- The characters joking about Augie being fat.
- Orpheus abusing and acting misogynistic towards Deema.
- Hell being portrayed as a place where souls are endlessly and brutally tortured.
- Sex jokes, like how The Devil accidentally sends a dick pic to Barb, for one instance.
- The Devil just sporadically going back and forth on his intentions of what to do with Curt after he's sent to Hell.
- While there isn't much of it, there are some examples of product placement in the film. For example, when Remy and Augie first arrive in Hell, there's a line of souls ordering from a pair Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants. Not to mention how the product placement itself was very shameless, even if there wasn't much of it.
Redeeming Qualities
- The animation, while unpleasant sometimes, still obviously had quite some effort put into it. Not to mention the backgrounds of the movie, especially the ones used for Hell, also look pretty cool.
- The character models for Remy, Augie, Deema, Orpheus, and Barb are extremely smooth and good-looking, especially when it comes to both Deema and Barb.
- Decent voice acting due to the film having many well-known voice actors such as Mila Kunis, Bob Odenkirk, and Susan Sarandon among others.
- The scene in which Barb magically strips off her angel outfit and does an erotic striptease in front of the others, including the main characters and the Devil himself, is the most noteworthy scene in the entire film as it's extremely sexy and very great to watch. Even the character's reactions are hilarious; like the Devil's "I wish I was that pole", and Deema's "She's on the wrong side of 40".
- The concept of Hell being ran like a business sounds like an interesting one, in spite of the awful execution. It actually sounds like a concept that would better work for a TV series rather than simply a movie.
- Helluva Boss is this concept done right since not only is it executed well but added some funny moments as well.
- The soundtrack is actually pretty decent, all thanks to Ryan Franks and Scott Nickoley.
- The opening ending credits is solid since it has a very reminiscent steampunk vibe to it.
Reception
Hell and Back received overwhelmingly negative reviews from critic and audiences alike, criticizing it for its plot, characters, animation, and tasteless humor. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 34% based on 5 reviews, with an average rating of 2.45/10.
Box Office
Hell and Back opened theatrically on October 2, 2015, in 411 venues, earning $104,374 in its opening weekend, ranking #33 in the domestic box office. As of October 15, the film grossed $157,768.
Trivia
- This is the first theatrically released animated film since 9 (2009) to not be rated either G nor PG by the MPAA.
Videos
Trailer
Full Movie
Reviews
External Links
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