Review of Hell Baby (2013) by Nick O — 03 Aug 2013

It's not that "From the creators of 'Reno 911!'" isn't a ringing endorsement. It's that "Hell Baby" -- written and directed by "Reno's" Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant -- is smarter than a tagline that drudges up the name of a fairly great but all but forgotten late-night cable comedy show. And yet Lennon and Garant have since then painted an altogether different kind of hell on screen in penning such shamelessly unremarkable crap (to say the least) as both "Night at the Museums", "Herbie: Fully Loaded" and "The Pacifier". "Hell Baby" is a return to roots of sorts. Casting a slew of funny people (Kumail Nanjiani, Rob Corddry, Rob Huebel, Paul Scheer, Keegan Michael Key; OTHERS) I can't deny "Hell Baby" its moments of inspired lunacy. It's filmed well by Lennon and Garant, scenes aren't without a lot of color and space, mostly avoids easy humor and shit jokes. Hell (wink), the always lovely Riki Lindhome has a fairly lengthy nude scene as a Wicca flower child that instead of gratuitous I honestly laughed harder at than anything in "Wanderlust" combined.

Where most movies drop the ball in their third acts, "Hell Baby" actually hugely ramps up after a deathly slow first hour. Lennon and Garant don't just let gags run on and on and give their actors room, but an exorcism sequence in extra-special particular is so off the wall and crazy instead of cringe at its goofiness you actually feel the movie's smile, and do so along with it. Of course then the final staging device goes too long, finishes with a proud piece of toilet humor and rips its ending beat straight out of "Scary Movie 3". Oh well. "Hell Baby's" a cool enough time, and sure beats the dead weight of Lennon and Garant's cynical studio works, but for two guys making merchandised millions in the wake of Hollywood's burning money, I couldn't help but gawk at "Hell Baby's" reason for being.