Since this stars Dax Shepard, a more appropriate title for Prison might've been Relentlessly Awful, Laugh-Free, Cinematic Torture Device.
Let's Go to Prison (2006)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:40
Fresh:4
Rotten:36
Average Rating:2.9/10
Consensus: Let's Go to Prison is guilty on all counts of cliched setups, base humor, and failure to ellicit laughs.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for language, sexual content, some violence and drug material.
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
Genre: Comedies
Theatrical Release:Nov 17, 2006 Wide
Box Office: $4,613,815
Synopsis: When asked about prison movies, the film buff instantly calls to mind epochal pictures such as Cool Hand Luke, The Count of Monte Cristo and Birdman of Alcatraz — or perhaps classics in the making... When asked about prison movies, the film buff instantly calls to mind epochal pictures such as Cool Hand Luke, The Count of Monte Cristo and Birdman of Alcatraz — or perhaps classics in the making like The Shawshank Redemption, In the Name of the Father and The Green Mile. These important works of art have two things in common: 1) they explore the fears and triumphs of unjustly arrested men railing against a cruel system and 2) they serve as a cornerstone of American dramatic cinema. Well...Let's Go To Prison shares one of those tenets. Frankly, we felt obligated to contribute to this genre of filmmaking with our own take on the core issues that inmates routinely face in 2006. While overcrowding and recidivism are topical and vital issues to address, so are other unique themes. In this film, we just happen to have the soap dropping that Steve McQueen never discovered and toilet wine that Dustin Hoffman failed to manufacture in Papillon. Based upon a non fiction book about how to stay out of jail (and/or survive it once you know you're headed upriver), Let's Go To Prison is an uncompromising, no-holdsbarred revenge comedy helmed by BOB ODENKIRK, the director who brought sketchcomedy fans Mr. Show With Bob and David. And he's about to give us everything that's been missing from the typical prison movie in his fresh, probing look at our penal system—rife with plenty of sweet, cloistered, man love. Felon John Lyshitski (DAX SHEPARD, Punk'd, Employee of the Month, Without a Paddle) has figured out the best way to get revenge on the now-dead judge who sent him to jail: "help" the official's obnoxious son, Nelson Biederman the IVth (WILL ARNETT, Arrested Development, RV, Blades of Glory), try to survive the clink. John strikes gold when Nelson is wrongly convicted of a crime and sent to the same penitentiary he used to call home. He gleefully sells pot to undercover cops and gets sent back to become Nelson's cellmate, ensuring that his new buddy gets the full treatment common in American penitentiaries. Let the games begin. Lesson #1: The joint's a scary place, so you better make friends fast. Right away, Nelson offends the wrong cons and is sold—by John—to Barry (CHI McBRIDE, The Nine, The Terminal, Undercover Brother) for prison snuggling. But the moment that revenge starts tasting sweet, Nelson becomes Big Man in the Big House and turns the tables on John...changing the rules of his insane game. November 17, 2006 is the day to shower with thugs, sip toilet wine and sharpen your shivs as the locked-up are set up in Carsey-Werner Films' inaugural title and Strike Entertainment's latest production: Let's Go To Prison, a Universal Pictures release. --© Universal Pictures [More]
Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Dax Shepard, Will Arnett, Chi McBride
Starring: Bob Odenkirk, Dax Shepard, Will Arnett, Chi McBride, Paul Young, Dylan Baker, Michael Shannon, David Koechner
Producer: Marc Abraham, Matt Berenson
Studio: Universal Pictures
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Reviews for Let's Go to Prison
Odenkirk’s visual sense ain’t the greatest, but he definitely knows funny.
The sad thing is that Arnett, Shepard and McBride quickly establish a loose, easy camaraderie that's a real pleasure to watch. The shame is that they're working with such unrewarding material.
Let's Go to Prison is a sly, very funny comedy that stays admirably deadpan every time you think its about to veer into gross-out territory.
It is awful, unfunny and moronic. And that applies to the best bits. Most of the movie is even worse.
This movie’s 90-minute run time definitely feels like too long of a sentence.
This really isn't a comedy. It's more of a woolly spoof, stretched out to criminal lengths.
...has its share of effective moments - most of which come courtesy of star Will Arnett...
Let's Go to Prison feels like an overextended sketch-comedy idea insufficiently filled out by subsidiary characters (few significantly figure) or standout setpieces.
A clueless, pointless, unfunny dud. The kind of movie where one can tell that the actors already know they're making a piece of crap.
Arnett has seven movies coming out within the next year. It seems safe, or at least optimistic, to assume that this is not going to be his high point. But he does make a consistently amusing Felix to Shepard's frustrated Oscar.
It has laughs, it has some cleverness, and it has a lot of problems. But it's not 'bad,' exactly. 'Dysfunctional' is more like it.
Arnett underplays to the point where he seems as shellshocked as his character, while Shepard seems to have forgotten that the film is supposed to be a comedy.
Should have been titled Let's Go to DVD, where it will clearly move with unbecoming alacrity, and where it will be much more at home. Though, one hopes, not yours.
The movie's too dryly detached to even enjoy its own tastelessness: jokes constantly fall with the dull clatter of cutlery on the mess-hall floor, and the relentless abuse meted out to the hapless Biederman backfires by dint of sheer ritual repetition.
It's hard to get laughs out of stuff that devolved into parody 10 or 20 years ago.
Shepard's character periodically rattles off damning statistics about America's booming prison industry, but most of the gags are of the don't-drop-the-soap variety.
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