The Good

When this movie is funny it's really funny.

The Bad

Me thinks this subject matter might be a little too extreme for some people. Weird menu navigation.

Let's Go to Prison is the tale of Nelson Biederman IV (Will Arnett) and John Lyshitski (Dax Shepard). It seems that Lyshitski credits Nelson's father, a judge, with making his life a living hell by sending him to prison. So he makes it his business to pay him back when he gets out of jail. Well, Judge Biederman dies and when Lyshitski finds this out he decides to get Nelson Biederman IV sent to the big house. Then Lyshitski himself gets to sent up so he can share a cell with Biederman and make his life a living hell.

Between people that want to kill him, a man who wants to make love to him (Chi McBride), and guards and wardens who want to make money betting on when he will die, Biederman has his survival work cut out for him. Well a funny thing happens, after accidentally killing the leader of a group of of Aryans, Biederman ends up becoming the big man in prison. Things start going well for him until Lyshitski sacks his parole hearing, and Biederman realizes just how badly his cellmate has set him up. What ensues is a fight to the death in which everyone is involved.

Features

Alternate Ending

I could go into detail about what's so different from this ending vs. the one they ultimately went with, but to be honest I didn't think that they were really that different. Without giving too much away, what finally happens as these Biederman and Lyshitski split up and then Lyshitski ends up in jail in Mexico. Truthfully, this is a better ending than the contrived one that they ultimately went with in the film itself and I am wondering why they changed it.

Deleted and Extended Scenes

There are a few of these on here and they have titles like "Nelson Courtroom Speech" and "Holding Cell." They are of equal quality to how the movie looks, and they were actually very funny. Having been on the set of a Bob Odenkirk film when he was shooting The Brothers Solomon, I know that he does a lot of takes. Something tells me that that's the reason why these scenes were cut from the movie, and not because they weren't up to par. Definitely peruse these if you liked the film.

Video

Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85:1. This film looked really solid on DVD. The picture was sharp and my only bone of contention was the mode in which I watched this film. I chose to watch it Unrated but I had to screen it over two days. Well, when I went back to watch the film, I couldn't use the chapters because I had watched it in the Unrated version. Thus, I might've missed some of the film. I know that's not the worst thing in the world, but I wish the navigation would have been easier.

Audio

Dolby Digital. Languages: English, Espanol and French Dolby Digital 5.1. The audio was solid but nothing about it really stood out to me. I was able to hear everything fine and I was happy that this movie didn't employ a lot of obnoxious music. This is what separates the work of Bob Odenkirk from that of Rob Schneider who will no doubt make much of the humor in his prison film Big Stan much more overt than it needs to be.

Package

Will Arnett, Dax Shepard and Chi McBride are featured on this front cover which really doesn't tell people too much about this movie. On the back cover are some shots from the film, a tiny description detailing what this movie is about, a listing of what the extras are, a cast list and some system specs. Unfortunately, the people who have designed this cover really haven't set this movie apart in any way.

Final Word

Even by comedy standards Let's Go to Prison isn't a great movie. It's subject matter could frankly be described as disturbing. However, simply by the title of this movie people should check their serious factor at the door. This movie is funny and it's different than a lot of other comedies that are being made today. It's crude, rude, and highly tasteless, yet that is priceless what makes it special. While I went into this thinking that it probably deserved to be ignored when it was released theatrically, I realized that in about 10 years people will be talking about films like Let's Go to Prison and Idiocracy, the same way we talk about movies like Stir Crazy and Trading Places.

Not for the faint of heart, the audience for Let's Go to Prison is going to love this film.

Let's Go to Prison was released November 17, 2006.