Let's Go to Prison DVD Review
Posted by Bryan Kristopowitz on 04.05.2007
Do you really want to go to prison? It's freaking prison!
Dax Shepard- John Lyshitski
Will Arnett- Nelson Biederman IV
Chi McBride- Barry
David Koechner- Shanahan
Dylan Baker- Warden
Michael Shannon- Lynard
David Darlow- Judge Biederman
Bob Odenkirk- Duane
Directed by Bob Odenkirk
Screenplay by Robert Ben Garant, Thomas Lennon, and Michael Patrick Jann, based on the book You Are Going to Prison by Jim Hogshire
Distributed by Universal Home Entertainment
Released March 6th, 2007
Unrated/ Rated R
Runtime- 90 minutes unrated version, 84 minutes rated version
Website: http://www.letsgotoprison.com/ http://www.universalstudioshomeentertainment.com/
I haven't seen that many prison movies, but from the ones I've seen they seem to fall into two categories; the "funny" prison movie (that whole Frank Drebin undercover in the Statesville Prison sequence in "Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult" or "Stir Crazy") and the serious "prison" movie ("The Shawshank Redemption" and "Lock Up" come to mind). The Bob Odenkirk directed "Let's Go to Prison," starring Dax Shepard and Will Arnett, is a prison movie that tries to straddle the line between being a funny and a serious prison movie. Or at least that's the way it seems to me.
The Flick
The following review is for the "Unrated" version, which contains about six minutes more "stuff" than the theatrical version (like the opening bit in the police office with the gruff desk cop telling us to pay attention to what we're about to see).
Dax Shepard is John Lyshitski (that may be one of the greatest cinematic names of all time), a young man with an extensive prison record going all the way back to his childhood. He's a professional prisoner, an extreme recidivst, a joint junkie. The weird thing is he keeps appearing before the same judge, Judge Biederman (David Darlow). Lyshitski just keeps showing up in his courtroom. So Lyshitski is released from his latest stint behind bars and hatches a plan. He figures that he doesn't have much to live for beyond finding some weed and getting high since he will probably end up going to prison again anyway, so he decides to buy a gun and seek out Judge Biederman and "do him in." After all the good judge has done for him, he figures that this is the least he can do.
Lyshitski calls the court to find out where the judge is presiding, only to find out that he died years ago. Puts the screws to that plan. So Lyshitski goes to a strip club, gets hit on by a fat stripper with a halo, and comes up with a different plan. The judge has a son, Nelson Biederman IV (Will Arnett). Nelson, as we find out, is a poor little rich kid, an obnoxious douchebag who can't stand talking to kids about drugs or talking to the old men on the board of the company/trust/foundation he was left by his father. And when he can't get a Fresca, watch out. So Lyshitski comes up with a plan to get Nelson. He finds Nelson's car, breaks into it, spits in his coffee, and damages his asthma puffer. Nelson goes for a drive, has an asthma attack, realizes that his puffer no longer works, goes into a drugstore, freaks out when he can't find the right medication, causes the Korean owners to think the place is being robbed, and trashes the place. It's all caught on tape. Nelson gets arrested, goes to trial, loses (funny jury sequence), and is sent to prison for two to five years. Nelson tried to get out of the whole thing at the beginning, figuring that his social standing as a rich guy would prevent the court from doing anything harsh, but with the "dumb" jury and the hardbutt judge, Nelson is forced to go to prison. He doesn't have much help from the board or the board's new administrator Duane (Odenkirk), who also happens to be Nelson's lawyer. This is exactly what Lyshitski wanted, perhaps a little more than he planned on. And it's all good. Sort of. Even after putting the little rich dick in jail, Lyshitski doesn't feel fulfilled. He comes to the conclusion that there's only way for him to feel fulfilled: go back to prison, bunk with Nelson, and make his life a living hell for the duration of his term. So Lyshitski gets caught with drugs, he pleads "guilty as hell," and gets sent to prison with Nelson.
When they get to prison, after bribing the uniform issuer (Lyshitski knows the guy by name. He asks for his old faded clothes as opposed to the bright new ones he would have been issued), Lyshitski gets the same cell as Nelson, and they start to "bond." They originally met on the bus ride to the prison, and Nelson feels somewhat at ease since Lyshitski isn't a total jerk to him. Lyshitski tries to tell him all about the prison gangs (Nazis, black guys, gangs and weirdoes of all kinds, Chi McBride's Barry the gay guy), what he's going to be doing for the next few years (hanging out in the cell, going to the cafeteria to eat, exercising in the yard, avoiding getting it up the butt in the shower), and what he needs to do to survive. Nelson can't be weak, can't be submissive. He has to show that he can fight, he can handle himself, that he isn't going to take any crap from anyone. But that advice, while probably in a sense sound, doesn't work out the way its supposed to. Nelson upsets the skinhead leader Lynard (Michael Shannon) and "befriends" Barry in, of all places, the shower. Of course, all of the hardship Nelson suffers is planned out ahead of time by Lyshitski. Nelson gets his butt kicked every day, he's forced to eat nasty stuff, and he can't get Barry to leave him alone. In fact, Lyshitski "sells" Nelson to Barry, making Nelson's Barry's "bitch."
So, how long will it take for Nelson to freak out? How long will it take him to get seriously injured or killed? Will Lyshitski's grand plan work out? Will anyone ever get out of prison?
If you've seen a trailer for this movie, or the DVD case, you'd think that it's a laugh a minute sight gag fest, sort of like "Anchorman," that it's somewhat light hearted and goofy. While the flick is certainly goofy in parts, just funny in others, it isn't that kind of comedy. There are moments where you think you're suppposed to laugh but you're not sure if you should because you can't tell if the bit is being played for laughs. No one is winking to the audience, there are no playful moments. Even the laid back narration by Shepard's Lyshitski, while often hysterical, isn't necessarily played for laughs. It plays more like "funny information" that may or may not elicit a laugh. Whether or not the movie succeeds depends on whether or not you think that direction is funny. I personally thought the movie was at times laugh out loud funny, at other times straining for a laugh and just not reaching one. It kind of works, basically. If a different director had been given the chair, like a Jay Roach or a David Zucker, we may have had a more straightforward comedy that throughout hits on all cylinders. The movie may not have "worked" better, but it likely would have been "funnier."
Dax Shepard is quite good as John Lyshitski. He embodies the slacker loser scumbag constant prisoner for all its worth. He's much better while in prison, much funnier (you do wonder if he really has the social skills to last in the "real world" for more than a few hours, since he's been in prison so much). Will Arnett is great as Nelson the rich guy in prison. He can wield profanity with the best of them, and you do kind of feel for him when he's getting the crap kicked out of him. Chi McBride's Barry the black gang leader is hilarious, although his character suffers from the flick's bizarre direction. Barry can be as nasty as a guy on "Oz," but you wonder why and how he can be that nasty when he's supposed to be a smooth talking, easy going guy. His prison cell is a love shack. Oh, sure he's a prison rapist, but in the context of this movie you wonder if that's necessarily a bad thing. And the man sure can cook up a might fine batch of toilet wine.
David "Champ Kind" Koechner shows up as the head prison guard Shanahan. Koechner does his usual fine, subtle job. When he's not being a hard butt guard and shooting his shotgun into the air telling everyone the prison is in lockdown he's scheduling prison fights, taking bets, and running cigarettes. You'll also notice that Koechner, in his Naked Trucker an T-Bone guise, sings the song over the opening titles. Dylan Baker does a fine, wierd job as the warden with a dry sense of humor. A very dry sense of humor. And he enjoys telling prisoners to shove things up their butt. The movie probably should have featured more of him. And special attention should be paid to Llou Johnson as the "black jurror." Just watch his bit and you'll see what I mean.
DVD Specifics
"Let's Go to Prison" is presented in 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen. It has Dolby Digital 5.1 Sound, with English, Spanish, and French language options. It also has English, Spanish, and French subtitles. Its picture is crisp and clear (it sure does help make the prison look depressing) and the sound is fine.
Special Features
- Alternate Ending
After watching the flick and then watching this alternate ending, you're probably going to wonder, like I did, why this wasn't the ending. The original ending, while it works fine, perhaps is too crowd pleasing. The alternate ending seems like the more appropriate one.
-Deleted Scenes
There are two deleted scenes, "Nelson's Courtroom Speech" and "Holding Cell." The first deleted scene is quite funny, the second one is, at best, okay. The movie works fine without them. Good call by Odenkirk.
- "Let's Go to Prison Soundtrack Sessions"
This is a shot on video featurette starring Odenkirk interviewing the various studio musicians that helped craft the flick's funky soundtrack. It'll probably most interesting to those of you who already know who the musicians are.
It would have been nice to have a "Making of" documentary or a commentary track, just so we can hear Odenkirk explain what it was he was trying to do here.
-Opening Previews
We get trailers for "Man of the Year," "Hot Fuzz," "SNL:The Complete First Season" DVD set, a commercial for NBC's "The Office," and an HD-DVD commercial that showcases what exactly an HD-DVD and an HD-DVD can do. After watching that commercial, the only conclusion I can come to is there are far too many choices for entertainment hardware these days. Is it really necessary to have all of those built in features? Do we really need to have picture in picture in picture or whatever the heck that was? Can't we just watch a movie, then the special features? Is it too much to ask to tone down the freaking multitasking?
Conclusion
So what do we have here? A comedic examination of the US prison system, gun buying, phone booth abuse, a stripper with a halo, a rich douchebag, breaking into a car, spitting into a man's coffee cup, puffer abuse, a Fresca fetish, Korean pharmacists with shotguns, a mean female judge, a moronic jury, sweet talking, a "Cheech and Chong" routine, a man with a dry sense of humor, crying, prison mail, narcing, license plate making, tai chi in the courtyard, male prisoner Eskimo kissing, the "hole," a needle with boat cleaner in it, a pen pal in 2nd grade, a man reading a soap opera magazine in the bathroom, group tai chi, a goatee, a "white power" forehead tattoo, a vest made of license plates, forks to the knees, fight betting, a fight to the death, gratuitous "Shake that Body," and gallons and gallons of toilet wine.
Fine lines include, "Our justice system sucks," "Did you ever think there's more to life than smoking grass and watching guys get arrested on television?' 'I've got some coke," "Crying is okay. It takes the sad out of you," "I don't mean to sound ungrateful, John, but did you have to stick your finger up my ass?" " Under all of the swastikas he's a real prick," "Thanks for the pencil.' 'No problem. I found it in the shitter,'" "Would you like some merlot? I made it in the toilet," "No coon. Just mostly Dutch," "If you weren't such a white supremacist asshole you would have read up on your Uncle Remus," "Lynard was the kind of asshole that gives Nazis a bad name," "Is this how you show someone that you love them? Choking them in the toilet?" "What took you so long?' 'I had to wait for all of the white people to leave,'" "Thank God. I've got to drop a deuce like no one's business," "Drink up bitches!" and the soon to be immortal line that will adorn T-shirts and hats the world over, "Eat shit Lyshitsky!"
You should see "Let's Go to Prison," just out of curiosity, to see if you think it's funny. It's either going to make you laugh or not laugh.
Movie Rating: 8.0
DVD Rating: 5.0
The 411: "Let's Go to Prison" is a prison movie that should be a comedy, sort of is a comedy, but to a degree plays serious at times. Or maybe the flick is just "darkly funny." Watch it and see if you think it's funny. You'll either laugh or you won't. There's no real in between.
