Let's Go to Prison (2006)

Somehow both more than it looks and less than it should have been -- the dry absurd wit of Bob Odenkirk that fueled much of the late, great "Mr. Show" pops up every now and then here, but not enough to push the film into the weirdly great realms of Pootie Tang (another film made by HBO refugees). Still, the dissonance between the digressive sandpaper interludes and the low-farce main body of the plot provides a soupcon of merriment; it's the kind of film that will indulge dumb jokes about boat cleaner and guys named Lyshitsky for a while then unexpectedly bust out with a quick, clever reference to Bre'r Rabbit or Lucian Freud. The committed performers help; Chi McBride, in particular, deserves an MVP award for using a disarming gee-whiz menace to make the myriad gay-sex jokes seems funnier than they rightfully are. It's spotty as dengue fever and misses a chance to go with an unexpectedly brutal and dark climax in favor of a retarded upbeat test-audience ending, but it's also rather funnier than most people will give it credit for. Trust me -- it'll look a lot better on cable.

Grade: B-