| Let's Go to Prison | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Bob Odenkirk |
| Produced by | Marc Abraham Matt Berenson Paul Young |
| Written by | Ben Garant Thomas Lennon Michael Patrick Jann |
| Starring | Dax Shepard Will Arnett Chi McBride David Koechner |
| Music by | Alan Elliott |
| Cinematography | Ramsey Nickell |
| Editing by | Eric L. Beason Denis Thorlaksen |
| Distributed by | Universal Studios |
| Release date(s) | November 17, 2006 |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $4,000,000 [1] |
| Box office | $4,630,045 |
Let's Go to Prison is an American comedy that was released in theatres November 17, 2006, starring Dax Shepard, Will Arnett and Chi McBride, and directed by Bob Odenkirk.
The movie was loosely based on the non-fiction book, You Are Going to Prison by Jim Hogshire.
Filming took place at the defunct Joliet Prison in Joliet, Illinois. The same prison is featured in the beginning of The Blues Brothers and the first season of the Fox show Prison Break.
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The movie takes the perspective of John Lyshitski (Dax Shepard) who has spent most of his life in prison, serving three different sentences (starting when he was eight, when he stole the Publisher's Clearing House van). In each of his three trials, he was presided by Judge Nelson Biederman III, who seemed to show no mercy passing down indiscriminantly harsh sentences. After being released from his third sentence, John decides to take revenge on Biederman, blaming him for his incarcerations in the past. After trying to determine when Biederman would be presiding over his next case, he discovers (much to his dissatisfaction) that he had died three days prior to his release.
He turns his attention to Nelson Biederman III’s arrogant son, Nelson Biederman IV (Will Arnett). At a dedication ceremony for Nelson III, John sneaks into Nelson's BMW, where he steals his change, spits in his coffee, and exhausts his emergency inhaler. After the ceremony, Nelson IV yells at his attorney (who has the speakerphone on in the fully occupied board room) clearly upset about having to go through such an ordeal, demanding that they leave him be and have a Fresca ready for him upon his arrival. He drives down the road and, finding his inhaler empty, immediately panics and hyperventilates. He stops at a pharmacy and scrambles through the shelves, desperately seeking some kind of replacement for the inhaler he lost. The pharmacy owners think he's another junkie, seeking some kind of fix. After finding and using an inhaler, he hides behind a counter and holds up the inhaler. The storeowner, however, mistakes the inhaler as a tiny pistol which leads the owners to call the police. Nelson ends up arrested and, after turning down the idea of stepping down and serving his time, demands that the Biederman foundation do whatever they have to do to have him released. The board contemplates for a moment, considering asking the governor to get Nelson out. However, they soon realize that this is their opportunity to get rid of him, so they conspire to get him a poor defense in trial, since they are sick and tired of his obnoxious attitude. With this severely inadequate legal representation, Nelson is found guilty and sentenced three to five years Rossmore State Penitentiary. John is not satisfied with Nelson just going to prison, however, so John decides to join him in prison by intentionally selling marijuana to undercover police officers. At his sentencing he pleads guilty to the same judge Nelson IV had, and asks for the same sentence (3-5) at the same prison. After negotiating with the judge and bribing a few guards, he ends up as Nelson’s cellmate, and here he pretends to be his friend, all in an attempt to give him the wrong advice on surviving life in prison.
While he is in jail, John consistently gives him bad advice and informs him about the people within the prison, including Lynard, the excessively violent leader of The White Kingdom, a white-supremacy ring within the penitentiary.
Somehow, Nelson gets himself out of a numerous array of jams with help from John. He soon meets gang leader Barry (Chi McBride), a hulking, burly gay fellow who basically rushes Nelson into a relationship with him. Barry is characterized as a romantic by his liking for smooth jazz (Chuck Mangione is a favorite of his), plying potential romantic partners with his finest toilet-made Merlot, and transforming his prison cell into a candle-lit, rose-bedecked passion parlor. It is quite obvious that Nelson initially gives in to Barry's seduction out of force and fear rather than genuine attraction but then seems happy with him and has obviously come out as gay.
Nelson reaches his one year parole hearing relatively unscathed, and actually the "top dog" in the prison. However, John will not allow his target to escape prison so easily: he drugs Nelson and writes "WHITE POWER" on his forehead and a swastika on each side of his neck. This leads to the parole board deciding that Nelson "needs" more time to be rehabilitated. Infuriated, Nelson brings John up on the act; John then confesses to putting Nelson in jail and the two get embroiled in a fight. It is here that John regrets bunking with Nelson when he realizes Nelson has nothing to lose but his will to murder, and John is the target. After an ensuing brawl, the guards set up a death match between the two.
However, John and Nelson secretly conspire and inject each other with a coma-inducing drug. The guards and prisoners believe that they are dead and bury the pair outside in the graveyard. Nelson's lover Barry, who has been let out on parole, digs the two up, freeing them. Nelson and Barry become life partners. One year later, the two male sweethearts set up a winery, where a critic is about to fail their wine. John shows up and forces the critic to give them a good review. Nelson, Barry and John end the film by taking a drive, and listening to "Move This" by Technotronic.
During the end credits, Barry sings a song called "Shower With U" in which he repeatedly sings "I wanna take a shower with you".
The movie received mostly negative reviews, holding a 12% "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes, dropping to 8% when only "top critics" are considered. The consensus for the film is "Let's Go to Prison is guilty on all counts of cliched setups, base humor, and failure to ellicit laughs." [1]
Metacritic gives it a score of 27 out of 100 ("Generally unfavorable"). [2]
Box Office Mojo reports that the film opened in 11th place with a meagre take of $2,220,050. It closed with a domestic gross of $4,630,045. [3]
Just like the Mr. Show with Bob and David film, Run Ronnie Run, that the film's director, Bob Odenkirk, worked on previously, the studio made significant alterations during the film's editing process that made Odenkirk unhappy with the final result. Changes included a happier ending, the removal of a sparse drums-only score recorded by Meg White of the rock band The White Stripes, and other alterations that made a significant change to the overall tone of the film.
The movie was released on DVD March 6, 2007 with deleted scenes and an alternate ending. [4]
The Unrated version features pre-credits and post-credits scene features a real-life officer giving the details about the film.
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