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At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Prelude: My exposure to this film was extremely limited, which is not saying much considering the advertising budget on this film was non- existent. I only saw one commercial, an ad placed on the Adult Swim block of Cartoon Network. The second being a guest appearance of Rob Riggle on E!'s The Soup promoting the film. I was (morbidly) sold on Hell & Back from the moment I saw that ad on Adult Swim. Any Stop Motion film being advertised at 1AM on a Tuesday night definitely has my attention! When I further researched the film, I had a difficult time finding any concrete information on a release platform for the film. The only info available was the October 2ndrelease date. I was convinced this would get an ultra-limited theatrical release, with a VOD release on the immediate horizon in time for Halloween. So when I checked my local movie times last week to see, by any chance, if it would be playing. I was shocked to see it had 4 showings each day. I did not have the opportunity to see it opening weekend, but went the first chance I could, a Monday afternoon. I would have been shocked if I was not the only person in the theater. Boy… Was I spot on!Plot: Hell & Back follows the adventures of Remy, Augie, and Curt. Our trio works at a dilapidated amusement park. Augie, the park's handyman, is tasked with fixing the park with no money and even further dwindling attendance. Remy "helps" his friend by talking to the park's fortune teller and taking her "Devil Book." Remy soon discovers the book has a crying Devil page and concocts a scheme to draw people to the amusement park, akin to "Jesus Toast." Soon enough, Remy and Curt make a "blood oath" on the book, over Remy loaning Curt "1 breath mint" (I'm not making this up), and Curt pledging an oath to repay the mint loan, "on the pages of the devil's book." Curt quickly makes it known he has no intention of repaying the mint loan, which leads to him being drawn into a vortex leading straight to the gates of, you guessed it, HELL. Remy and Augie quickly enter the portal to rescue their friend. It is here we are introduced to the realm of Hades. We are introduced to the Devil himself and his Demon-minions who spend eternity torturing the Lost Souls that inhabit this realm. We learn that the devil is really a metrosexual (he even listens to a trendy boy band while in the shower!), who only uses the "giant red horn physique" in order to "motivate the troops (the demons)." It is not long before Remy and Augie's presence is sensed and "Barb the Angel" (an oversexualized angel, voiced by the most marquee worthy actor in the film, Susan Sarandon) is dispatched to return them to the world of the living. Remy and Augie go searching for Orpheus, the Greek Mythological figure, who can save their friend. In the process of searching for Orpheus, Deema appears, a purple-horned, demon-human hybrid, who has her own motives in locating Orpheus. The story goes on from there and you could guess the twists and turns. Review:Hell & Back is not anything to get "riled up" over. Is it so awful that the distributing studio (Freestyle Releasing) felt it was such a "lost cause," it dumped the film into theaters without any sort of marketing push? No. Is it a great movie? Also,no. This film would have been heralded as a classic, if it was not for South Park. The film made me laugh once, yet I genuinely enjoyed it. The art design is a cross between MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch and HBO's Crashbox. Nothing groundbreaking, but there are a couple of pieces which are eye-catching. The most notable being the "Devil's Gondola," which has multiple cogs and gears aided by skeleton hands pulling its way across the cables that transverse its home and destination ports. The only stand out characters are the Demons and the Lost Souls they perpetually torture. These scenes are the stand outs of the film and are the few that illicit laughter. One particular scene (which can be found in the trailer), involves a Demon operating a Pizza Hut- Taco Bell dual restaurant, goading a Lost Soul into ordering a pizza, only to inform him, "we don't carry pizza" even though the sign says they do. Scenes like this occur throughout the film (and even over the end credits), yet are few and far in between. Ultimately, the film's detriment lies with its human characters and Deema. One scene involves Remy and Augie ogling Deema, as she disrobes in order to restore proper ballast in a submarine they need to transverse Hell (who knew Hell has water?). I honestly do not know who this scene was meant for? It is an R-rated film, yet wants me to be amused by an animated purple, devil-esque woman parading around in a skimpy cotton outfit. Hell & Back's largest issue is its bipolar tonal shifts. One half of the film is juvenile and tries ever so hard to appeal at a sophomoric audience. The Robot Chicken audience would roll their eyes at a lot of the jokes here. Yet there is subtle, dry humor present, that if you mentally check out long enough, you will miss a good one-liner or two! I am pressed to believe much of the latter stems from ad-libbed lines from the voice cast, which is chocked full of under-appreciated comedians (except Nick Swardson). Hell & Back is the definition of a mixed bag. There is much to dislike about the film, yet there are enough small gems in it, that to the right person will be appreciated. Recommended to stop-motion animation enthusiasts who have a strong sense of patience.

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.

HELL AND BACK review by: Mike Smith "Fat Mike" Three friends embark on a wayward journey into the deepest, darkest depths of hell to rescue one of their own. While navigating their escape, they provoke a slew of misfit demons, a super sexy angel, an infamous Greek legend and the Devil himself. After seeing this trailer I couldn't wait to see this independent film! The cast is full of talent and some of my favorite comedians and voice actors. Nick Swardson, Mila Kunis, T.J. Miller, Rob Riggle, Susan Sarandon, Danny McBride and Bob Odenkirk voice the main cast. I was more impressed with the costar talent made up of Brian Posehn, Maria Bamford, Kyle Kinane, Kumail Nanjiani, Greg Proops, Paul Scheer, J.B. Smoove, Dana Snyder, Paul F. Tompkins and the legendary H. Jon Benjamin as "The Tree". Unfortunately, as talented as the cast is, I felt little to no connection to the main characters. That being said, the story is good, ridiculous and funny; the jokes are crude and at times, laugh out loud funny. The best part of this film is the animation, stop motion animation is far and few between these days and I always strongly enjoy seeing the art form. Hell And Back is a fun ride with good adult laughs and a great cast. The only downfall I had was the lack of connection with the main characters and that this film is forgettable. But I would recommend checking it out. Cheers and remember life won't suck as long as there is a good movie to watch. 6.5 out of 10 edited by Samantha Lockefacebook page: https://www.facebook.com/FatMikesMovieReviews/Twitter: @FatMikeTPK

Hell and Back might just be the best Stoner Comedy-Adult Claymation that takes place in Hell...only because it's the ONLY one. Okay, now to be fair with this, I will say that the voice work of this film is...alright. The jokes vary from hit-and-miss (mostly though, they miss). The adult content has been amped up so much that it feels they just broke it off to see if it can go higher. Yes, this one of the raunchiest movies I've ever seen. Not just this year, period.The story is about 3 'Bros' who work at a piece of crap of a ghetto carnival. While trying to figure out how to save it from being foreclosed, one of the main characters named Remy(Nick Swardon) locates a book of Beelzebub within the fortune teller's shack, and starts to get interested in it. Soon, his friends Augie(T.J. Miller) and Curt(Rob Riggle) show up, and Remy forces them in to some kind of satanic ritual over a mint. I wish I was kidding. Soon, Curt breaks his oath for not having a mint, and so he ends up going to Hell, and it's up to our two bro-tagonists to come and save the poor man from the Devil(Bob Odenkirk)Now, the biggest problem with the film is dealing with the likability of our main characters, especially Remy. Remy is one of the worst written character's I've seen in a movie to date. He isn't funny in his jerkiness, he's just a bloody douche. Not only is he bad, but another character named Orpheus(played by Danny McBride) is just as badly written, if not worse then Remy. And these two BOND in their overblown, flanderized nature. Also, the Devil, for being the whole 'Prince of Darkness' and all, is very underwhelming. His jokes aren't funny in the slightest, and he has this other form where he's dressed like a hipster and it's stupid as hell. or in this case, stupid as there.Jokes are a big part of comedy, and they need to be quick as so the audience can't think to hard on them, otherwise you risk having the audience unravel it and finding a sort of fridge horror behind it. Jokes in this movie drag out for too long, even the legitimately funny ones, and they feel rushed as a result. A noteworthy series of the good ones involve a suffering spirit trying to take punishments from a demon, but the punishments are really subpar and no big deal, and the demon ends it with "Heh heh, Welcome to Hell." However, those jokes are vastly outnumbered by toilet humor that feels like it belongs in a bad kid's movie, and stoner comedy that feels like the throwaway gags ripped from that movie American Ultra.However, I can't help but see some light in the dark of this film. The animation looks OK, the music is good(and that includes the songs Orpheus sings), and the design of Hell is pretty good for what they got. I also found that the implied romance between Augie and the half-succubus Deema to feel nice and a good mold breaker towards the rest of the film's mediocrity. It's surprisingly traditional given that the demon herself is literally a female sex-crazed monstrosity. But, she and Augie are the closet we get to likable characters.This is a big disappointment for me and for those who want to see a smartly written comedy. "Hell and Back", however, lived up to it's name. I wish it were better, but it's still an underwhelming, mediocre stoner film that just so happens to be claymation and in hell.