Clyde Williams and Billy Foster are a couple of blue-collar workers in Atlanta who have promised to raise funds for their fraternal order, the Brothers and Sisters of Shaka. However, their method for raising the money involves travelling to New Orleans and rigging a boxing match.

南北战争结束后，美国权势阶层重新洗牌。但是，社会并未发生太大的改变，黑人依旧处于弱势地位。电影运用喜剧化的表达，展现出了对现实的讽刺。西部拓荒的道路上，是白人的子弹、黑人的血泪，还有印第安人那冷冰冰的尸体。

美国7、80年代最著名的一对黑白喜剧搭档金怀尔德和里查普赖尔合作的经典喜剧。黑人影星希德尼-波蒂埃担任导演，但从本片来看，其导演水平比张艺谋要强过不少。
此片看点是金-怀德的表演，他是1980年代最受观众欣赏的美国喜剧演员之一；本片与他搭档的黑人演员理查-普莱尔也相当了得，两人此前合作过的《三上银色快车》相信大多数中国观众都十分熟悉，本片两人二度合作，化学作用更是了得，只可惜90年代两人的第三、四次合作都成绩平平。
影片讲述两个小人物被错当成银行抢劫犯投入狱中，又通过一场监狱牛仔比赛成功逃脱的故事，依靠将人物置入本不属于他们的环境的手法来制造笑料，再加上层层推进的脱狱过程，具有相当的可看性。

How does retired cop Joshua Burke (James Earl Jones) get two career criminals, Manny Durrell (Sidney Poitier) and Dave Anderson (Bill Cosby), to follow the straight and narrow? Con them into helping juvenile delinquents turn over a new leaf. But how? Burke has never been able to nail the duo, but he uses what he knows of their seedy past to blackmail them into volunteering.

Two blue-collar buddies search the underworld for a winning lottery ticket lost in a nightclub holdup.