Let's Go to Prison
Encyclopedia
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
.
) 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".
, 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."
Metacritic
gives it a score of 27 out of 100 ("Generally unfavorable").
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.
The Unrated version features pre-credits and post-credits scene features a real-life officer giving the details about the film.
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
that was released in theatres November 17, 2006, starring Dax Shepard
Dax Shepard
Dax Randall Shepard is an American actor.- Early life :Shepard was born in Milford, Michigan and attended Muir Junior High and Walled Lake Central High School, before enrolling in The Groundlings school. He later received a degree in anthropology at UCLA...
, Will Arnett
Will Arnett
William Emerson "Will" Arnett is a Canadian actor and comedian best known for his role as George Oscar "G.O.B." Bluth II on the Fox comedy Arrested Development. He is also known for his role as Devon Banks on the NBC comedy 30 Rock. Since his success on Arrested Development, Arnett has landed major...
and Chi McBride
Chi McBride
Kenneth "Chi" McBride is an American actor. He starred as Steven Harper on the series Boston Public, as Emerson Cod on Pushing Daisies, and recently appeared in Fox's drama Human Target.-Early life:...
, and directed by Bob Odenkirk
Bob Odenkirk
Robert "Bob" Odenkirk is an American actor, comedian, writer, director and producer. He is best known as the co-creator and co-star of the HBO sketch comedy series Mr...
.
The movie was loosely based on the non-fiction book, You Are Going to Prison
You Are Going to Prison
You Are Going to Prison is a non-fiction book by Jim Hogshire. As its title implies, it's a practical guide for those who are facing their first experience with incarceration. In 2006, it was loosely adapted into the film Let's Go to Prison....
by Jim Hogshire
Jim Hogshire
James Frederick Hogshire is a counterculture author of magazine articles, short stories, and a number of books...
.
Filming took place at the defunct Joliet Prison
Joliet Prison
Joliet Correctional Center was a prison in Joliet, Illinois, United States from 1858 to 2002. It is featured in the motion picture The Blues Brothers as the prison from which Jake Blues is released at the beginning of the movie...
in Joliet
Joliet, Illinois
Joliet is a city in Will and Kendall Counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, located southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. As of the 2010 census, the city was the fourth-most populated in Illinois, with a population of 147,433. It continues to be Illinois' fastest growing...
, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. The same prison is featured in the beginning of The Blues Brothers
The Blues Brothers (film)
The Blues Brothers is a 1980 musical comedy film directed by John Landis and starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd as "Joliet" Jake and Elwood Blues, characters developed from a musical sketch on the NBC variety series Saturday Night Live. It features musical numbers by R&B and soul singers James...
and the first season of the Fox
Fox Broadcasting Company
Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly referred to as Fox Network or simply Fox , is an American commercial broadcasting television network owned by Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. Launched on October 9, 1986, Fox was the highest-rated broadcast network in the...
show Prison Break
Prison Break
Prison Break is an American television serial drama created by Paul Scheuring, that was broadcast on the Fox Broadcasting Company for four seasons, from 2005 until 2009. The series revolves around two brothers; one has been sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit, and the other devises an...
.
Plot
The movie takes the perspective of John Lyshitski (Dax ShepardDax Shepard
Dax Randall Shepard is an American actor.- Early life :Shepard was born in Milford, Michigan and attended Muir Junior High and Walled Lake Central High School, before enrolling in The Groundlings school. He later received a degree in anthropology at UCLA...
) 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
Will Arnett
William Emerson "Will" Arnett is a Canadian actor and comedian best known for his role as George Oscar "G.O.B." Bluth II on the Fox comedy Arrested Development. He is also known for his role as Devon Banks on the NBC comedy 30 Rock. Since his success on Arrested Development, Arnett has landed major...
). 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
Fresca
Fresca is a citrus diet soft drink made by The Coca-Cola Company. First introduced in the United States in 1966, the drink is now sold throughout the American continent...
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
Substance dependence
The section about substance dependence in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders does not use the word addiction at all. It explains:...
, 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
Pistol
When distinguished as a subset of handguns, a pistol is a handgun with a chamber that is integral with the barrel, as opposed to a revolver, wherein the chamber is separate from the barrel as a revolving cylinder. Typically, pistols have an effective range of about 100 feet.-History:The 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
Chi McBride
Kenneth "Chi" McBride is an American actor. He starred as Steven Harper on the series Boston Public, as Emerson Cod on Pushing Daisies, and recently appeared in Fox's drama Human Target.-Early life:...
), 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
Smooth jazz
Smooth jazz is a genre of music that grew out of jazz fusion and is influenced by R&B, funk, rock, and pop music styles ....
(Chuck Mangione
Chuck Mangione
Charles Frank "Chuck" Mangione is an American flugelhorn player and composer who achieved international success in 1977 with his jazz-pop single, "Feels So Good." Mangione has released more than thirty albums since 1960.-Early life and career:...
is a favorite of his), plying potential romantic partners
Boyfriend
A boyfriend is a person's regular male companion in a romantic or sexual relationship, although normally not in long-term committed relationships, where other titles A boyfriend is a person's regular male companion in a romantic or sexual relationship, although normally not in long-term committed...
with his finest toilet-made Merlot
Pruno
Pruno, or prison wine, is an alcoholic liquid variously made from apples, oranges, fruit cocktail, ketchup, sugar, and possibly other ingredients, including crumbled bread. Bread provides the yeast for the pruno to ferment. Pruno originated in prisons and jails, where it can be produced cheaply,...
, and transforming his prison cell into a candle-lit, rose-bedecked passion parlor
Boudoir
A boudoir is a lady's private bedroom, sitting room or dressing room. The term derives from the French verb bouder, meaning "to be sulky" or boudeur, meaning "sulky".- In architecture :...
. 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
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
.
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
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
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
Domestic partnership
A domestic partnership is a legal or personal relationship between two individuals who live together and share a common domestic life but are neither joined by marriage nor a civil union...
. One year later, the two male sweethearts
Romantic love
Romance is the pleasurable feeling of excitement and mystery associated with love.In the context of romantic love relationships, romance usually implies an expression of one's love, or one's deep emotional desires to connect with another person....
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
Technotronic
Technotronic is a Belgian studio-based music project formed in 1988 by Jo Bogaert , who had already made his musical mark in the beginning of the 1980s as a part of a cover band and as a solo artist under various New Beat projects, including The Acts of Madmen and Nux Nemo...
.
During the end credits, Barry sings a song called "Shower With U" in which he repeatedly sings "I wanna take a shower with you".
Cast
- Dax ShepardDax ShepardDax Randall Shepard is an American actor.- Early life :Shepard was born in Milford, Michigan and attended Muir Junior High and Walled Lake Central High School, before enrolling in The Groundlings school. He later received a degree in anthropology at UCLA...
as John - Will ArnettWill ArnettWilliam Emerson "Will" Arnett is a Canadian actor and comedian best known for his role as George Oscar "G.O.B." Bluth II on the Fox comedy Arrested Development. He is also known for his role as Devon Banks on the NBC comedy 30 Rock. Since his success on Arrested Development, Arnett has landed major...
as Nelson - Chi McBrideChi McBrideKenneth "Chi" McBride is an American actor. He starred as Steven Harper on the series Boston Public, as Emerson Cod on Pushing Daisies, and recently appeared in Fox's drama Human Target.-Early life:...
as Barry - David KoechnerDavid KoechnerDavid Michael Koechner is an American comedian, musician, and character actor. Koechner began studying improvisational comedy in Chicago at the ImprovOlympic, under the teachings of Del Close, before joining the Second City Northwest...
as Shanahan - Dylan BakerDylan BakerDylan Baker is an American actor, known for playing supporting roles in both major studio and independent films.-Early life:...
as Warden - Michael ShannonMichael Shannon (actor)Michael Corbett Shannon is an American stage, film, and television actor. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in Revolutionary Road...
as Lynard - David Darlow as Judge Biederman
- Bob OdenkirkBob OdenkirkRobert "Bob" Odenkirk is an American actor, comedian, writer, director and producer. He is best known as the co-creator and co-star of the HBO sketch comedy series Mr...
as Duane
Reception
The movie received mostly negative reviews, holding a 12% "fresh" rating at Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, 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."
Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
gives it a score of 27 out of 100 ("Generally unfavorable").
Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo
Box Office Mojo is a website that tracks box office revenue in a systematic, algorithmic way. Brandon Gray started the site in 1999. In 2002, Gray partnered with Sean Saulsbury and they grew the site to nearly two million readers when, in July 2008, the company was purchased by Amazon.com through...
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.
DVD
The movie was released on DVD March 6, 2007 with deleted scenes and an alternate ending.The Unrated version features pre-credits and post-credits scene features a real-life officer giving the details about the film.