Let's Go To Prison (2006)

12% of critics liked it
(41 reviews)
51% of users liked it
(118,200 ratings)

Bob Odenkirk's jail comedy Let's Go to Prison!, stars Will Arnett as Nelson Biederman IV, the son of a judge who ends up being sentenced to serve time in Rossmore State Penitentiary. During one of his rare stints out of incarceration, career criminal John Lyshitski (Dax Shepard) learns of the… More Bob Odenkirk's jail comedy Let's Go to Prison!, stars Will Arnett as Nelson Biederman IV, the son of a judge who ends up being sentenced to serve time in Rossmore State Penitentiary. During one of his rare stints out of incarceration, career criminal John Lyshitski (Dax Shepard) learns of the conviction. John holds a grudge against Nelson's father and decides to get his revenge by going back to jail and making Nelson's stay there as horrible as possible. Chi McBride co-stars as a fellow inmate. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Play Trailer

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 29 min.
Directed By: Bob Odenkirk
Genres: Comedy

In Theaters: Nov 17, 2006 Wide
On DVD: Mar 6, 2007
Studio: Universal Pictures

Critic Reviews

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader
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.
Gregory Kirschling, Entertainment Weekly
It's hard to get laughs out of stuff that devolved into parody 10 or 20 years ago.
Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
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.
Michael Ordoña, Los Angeles Times
Because the movie can't bring itself to take that leap into full-on absurdity, the characters and comic opportunities stay confined to their cells.
Dennis Harvey, Variety
Let's Go to Prison feels like an overextended sketch-comedy idea insufficiently filled out by subsidiary characters (few significantly figure) or standout setpieces.
Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star
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.
Jane Boursaw, Common Sense Media
Punk'd star in adult jail-house comedy.
Tom Meek, Boston Phoenix
As a comedy, Bob Odenkirk's penitentiary send-up is bootless.
Stefan Birgir Stefansson, sbs.is
evern less funny than brothers solomon
Ryan Cracknell, Calgary Movies
The short and the sweet of it: Let's Go to Prison is one of the worst pieces of Hollywood garbage I have ever seen.
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews
...has its share of effective moments - most of which come courtesy of star Will Arnett...
Kam Williams, NewsBlaze
Though sloppily edited like a bad B-movie, this poor man's version of Trading Places will undoubtedly resonate for anyone with a taste for gruesome gallows humor, and a desire to see a spoiled, rich kid get a taste of how the other half lives.
Frank Lovece, Film Journal International
89 minutes that drag on like, well, a prison sentence.
Jesse Hassenger, Filmcritic.com
its off-kilter wit is displayed with stinginess (or is it laziness?).
Jim Lane, Sacramento News & Review
Oh gee, let's not.
Linda Cook, Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)
Let's not. And say we did.
Nathan Rabin, AV Club
Prison makes its 84-minute running time feel like a five-year sentence with no chance for parole.
Mark Palermo, Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia)
Life's too short.
Marc Savlov, Austin Chronicle
Consider this one disarmed and extremely pointless.
Larry Ratliff, San Antonio Express-News
If movies could be punished, Let's Go to Prison would be sent to solitary confinement for impersonating a prison comedy.

Read all 21 critic reviews

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

Manu G

Welcome to the slammer Purely a comedy that isn't very funny but entertains at least with some wild crappy things that only in jail could happen. This is just a movie to watch to joke around with your friends while you watch it, it's not meant to take seriously at all.… More
Welcome to the slammer Purely a comedy that isn't very funny but entertains at least with some wild crappy things that only in jail could happen. This is just a movie to watch to joke around with your friends while you watch it, it's not meant to take seriously at all. John Lyshitski is a car stealing slacker, with a weed problem, and has been in Illinois' Rossmore State Penitentiary so many times, he knows it's entire population of both staff and cons by their fast names. Cursed with the old ill luck of being in the wrong place, at the wrong time, in possession of the wrong car, he's been deemed a lost cause repeat offender in the eyes of everyone else. When the heartless judge, who has been behind most of his sentences, goes to the big court house in the sky, John decides to ruin the man's legacy by having the judge's only offspring, Nelson Biederman IV, thrown in the slammer along with him. Here, the world-class selfish jerk learns a certain old lesson the hard way: Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. But has John somewhat gone too far in the payback department?
Jeff "

Let's go to prison is a borderline average comedy. I did enjoy the film somewhat, but the humour is hit and miss. This could have been a terrific comedy, but it manages to only provide a few humorous quips here and there, but never manages to give you laugh out loud moments. But… More
Let's go to prison is a borderline average comedy. I did enjoy the film somewhat, but the humour is hit and miss. This could have been a terrific comedy, but it manages to only provide a few humorous quips here and there, but never manages to give you laugh out loud moments. But for some reason, I can't quite dislike this film. Despite the fact that the story is paper thin, the acting is not great whatsoever and theres not really anything going for it. But for some strange reason, I like it. I Let's Go To Prison is a comedy that small on laughs, even smaller on story. The characters aren't loveable, but theres something about this film that I like. I guess I like it because it doesn't try hard enough, it's a simple comedy with a simple idea, and it's nothing elaborate. Dax Shepard who usually is pretty funny gives a mediocre performance and so does Will Arnett, whom I think is fairly annoying here. But I guess thats the whole point. (Personally, I never really like him or found him funny). Chi McBride is sort of miscast here too. Let's go to prison had the potential of being a very good comedy, but the end result is a comedy thats borderline decent and is what I ultimately consider a guilty pleasure
Dead A

Are there really gay in the prison? Lol
Jani H

"... quilty. - You mean guilty?" Watch two annoying men, whom you've got no interest of, hang out in prison and swindle (that's a cool word) their way out of prison. I'll admit, there's some funny scenes but they're more of a reminder of something… More
"... quilty. - You mean guilty?" Watch two annoying men, whom you've got no interest of, hang out in prison and swindle (that's a cool word) their way out of prison. I'll admit, there's some funny scenes but they're more of a reminder of something funny I've seen earlier in other movies.
Bobby H

This movie is halarious. The plot was very creative, the actors all did great jobs, and its unpredictable. It's everything anyone who enjoys a good comedy would want in a movie. Besides maybe those who has really been to Prison.. heh..
Michael G

Completely ridiculous and silly, but also very funny. Will Arnett plays the perfect millionaire cheesedick asshole, Dax Shepard is actually funny and Chi McBride steals the show. And to top it off it's written by Reno 911 cast members and directed by Bob from Mr. Show. You… More
Completely ridiculous and silly, but also very funny. Will Arnett plays the perfect millionaire cheesedick asshole, Dax Shepard is actually funny and Chi McBride steals the show. And to top it off it's written by Reno 911 cast members and directed by Bob from Mr. Show. You won't flip out but you'll laugh. I flipped out. This movie's also the worst thing to happen to wine since Sideways.
Steve K

I kept waiting for the big laughs, but it never really got more than amusing.
Rico Z

I was expecting so much with this movie. After seeing Will Arnett's talent on the bitingly original and terribly overlooked television show Arrested Development; I thought this movie (who's theme SEEMED similar to AD's) would be much better than it turned out to be.… More
I was expecting so much with this movie. After seeing Will Arnett's talent on the bitingly original and terribly overlooked television show Arrested Development; I thought this movie (who's theme SEEMED similar to AD's) would be much better than it turned out to be. Now, in no way is the film bad because of Arnett or any of the other actors. They all do a great job at conveying the angst and humor in being locked-up (and the situations that ensue.) But this movie suffered from a terrible director (who didn't take advantage of the actors' talent) and shoddy editing team that made the movie seem too long, choppy, disjointed and--plain boring. The movie would've been a great idea for a short or even a television pilot. But not a movie. There wasn't enough of a story to stretch out into the 80-something minutes this movie was. By the time the end comes, you're thinking that it was about an hour too long. Most of the film (which was meant to be a satire of the prison system) is laugh-less and moves at a pace that doesn't allow for character development or even sequence development. All in all, I would say: rent this movie and check it out for yourself. But I wouldn't even go that far. I found it to be a waste of time and felt sorry for the actors (especially for Will Arnett) for having wasted their time and talents on a such a worthless project such as this one. Better luck next time, Will. Skip prison--Let's Go See Something Else!
Aaron N

We should be cellmates. I don't snore, and I'm a quiet masturbator. Hell, I'll even give you the top bunk. This could have been a much better movie. There were a lot of good chances to have this turn into a social commentary about the prison system. It also could have… More
We should be cellmates. I don't snore, and I'm a quiet masturbator. Hell, I'll even give you the top bunk. This could have been a much better movie. There were a lot of good chances to have this turn into a social commentary about the prison system. It also could have made a good parody movie about prison movies in general. Nope, instead it just goes very low brow, has long moments of nothing being funny at all, and stretches its premise out to long. Too bad.
Stephen E

Pretty funny, but that doesn't make up for the rest of the films flaws, which there are plenty of. It's like the retarded cousin of "Shawshank".
Yinalí R

Stupid.
William G

A considerably laughless, constantly misguided, and thoroughly half-assed comedy.
Stephen E

Pretty funny, but that doesn't make up for the rest of the films flaws, which there are plenty of. It's like the retarded cousin of "Shawshank".
t h o m !

A couple of chuckles here and there, but ultimately... Will Arnett you let me down.
Remi L

Hilarious! I've seen this movie so many times it's ridiculous!
Patrick D

I actually really like how this movie plays out. It's really entertaining and hilarious, but I mean Dax Shepard and Will Arnett and fucking hilarious is whatever they are it. It starts out kind of political yet kinda drops that really quickly. It's oddly directed by a great… More
I actually really like how this movie plays out. It's really entertaining and hilarious, but I mean Dax Shepard and Will Arnett and fucking hilarious is whatever they are it. It starts out kind of political yet kinda drops that really quickly. It's oddly directed by a great comedy writer Bob Odenkird who you may know from Mr. Show along with David Cross who I figured wrote the film when I heard he directed it, but he does a pretty good job. I gotta say I really quite liked it.
Jim W

Surprisingly funny but still not that great.
Wu C

Funny flick. Dax Sheppard is good as a con.