Sex and Death 101 (2007)

This is by far one of the worst movies I have ever watched. I implore you to spare yourself the agony of 100 minutes of a contrived plot.The dialogue was painfully childish, the characters were insufferable, intolerable, and outright cartoon-ish. To boil the male perspective down to nothing but sex/sexual encounters hardly makes for a gripping plot. I can't think of a single redeeming quality as to why anyone would watch this piece of tripe!The funniest part about this film was when my boyfriend turned to me and said, "This must have been when Winona Ryder stole something and was desperate for work."

When you're making a movie and the best thing about it is "The Facts of Life" Mindy Cohn's performance as a lesbian secretary, you've got problems.Sex and Death 101 is a movie that tries to tell one-and-a-quarter stories. One full story is about Roderick Blank (Simon Baker), a guy who's all ready to settle down and get married when he gets a list in his e-mail. The list is the names of all the people he's ever going to have sex with but while there are 101 names on the list, Roderick has only had sex with 29 women so far. So over the next year, Roderick uses the list as a guide to boink his way through the other 72 names. The quarter of a story concerns Death Nell (Winona Rider), a woman who's taking men that have been abusive or disrespectful of woman and putting them into comas. I say it's a quarter of a story, because even though you know Roderick and Death Nell will be getting together, her role is barely more than a glorified cameo.Firstly, this film is a great example that you shouldn't make a whimsical romantic comedy with a writer/director who not only doesn't understand women, he doesn't even understand men. There's a scene where Roderick and his two guy friends are talking and watching a football game. There's a big play, the guys jump up to celebrate, then fall into a pile on the floor where they lay next to each other and talk for about a minute. Guys don't lie next to each other on the floor and have conversations. Young girls may do that. Straight men do not. I don't even think gay guys do that, and that's the level of understanding Daniel Waters brings to the story.That lack of wisdom doesn't completely cripple the film, because understanding human behavior isn't necessary if none of your characters are real human beings in any sense of the word. The characters in Sex and Death 101 are clever, colorful and occasionally funny, but there's not a single moment when you actually feel anything for any of them. The movie deals with the implications of knowing which women absolutely will and which absolutely won't have sex with you in a detached fashion, but then forces poor Simon Baker to ridiculously overact when the story suddenly dictates that Roderick have an emotional crisis by falling in love with a girl who's not on the list.There is some decent female nudity in the film, but not from any of the big name actresses (not even Mindy Cohn) and it's all in the first half, before the story gets all wrapped up in the mysterious entity that sent the list to Roderick and how his story is intersecting with Death Nell's. And maybe I've never noticed it before, but there's something seriously off about Winona Rider's nose in this movie. There are these very odd double ridges on the bridge of her nose that I don't recall ever being that distinct before.Fundamentally, the trouble with Sex and Death 101 is that it lacks balls, and I don't mean male nudity. The subjects of predestination, exploitation and manipulation it deals with are fairly dark…but the movie always keeps them at arm's length. It's too delicate to mine the laughs out of the raw pain of Roderick's predicaments, so the humor never rises above the sitcom level, with the jokes telegraphed so clearly that you can see them coming during the movie you watch before you watch Sex and Death 101. So, it's not an unfunny movie, but it is one that you laugh at almost as much as you laugh with.

There is a lot of swearing and there are a lot of sex scenes. So I wouldn't want to watch this with my teenage kids or my parents. However the swearing is in tune with the film and so is the sex so it isn't out of place at all.I enjoyed this film. I didn't see any plot holes - just unexplained moments - but then what in real life is totally explainable? Every day we live with technology and social systems and people who we cannot explain - so why should a film not be allowed a little of this uncertainty? As long as the entirety of the film makes sense - and this one really does.The acting was believable and the characters likable. I usually dislike the male leads who flit from one woman to the next, but this lead character was very sympathetic.I felt so sorry for him as he realised he simply could not escape his fate. There were some very funny surprises along the way as well.Poor man!! Winona Ryder turns up throughout the film as a parallel storyline as a mysterious killer. She is the dark counter play to the lighter male storyline.I see this film as a story about how good people can be swallowed up by bad experiences and fate, but that how in the end true optimism and kindness will win out.It is a lovely film to watch if you want some laughs, and a gentle but interesting and surprising storyline.Not for prudes though.

With Sex and Death 101, Daniel Waters does for the romantic comedy genre what he did for the teen genre in Heathers. A convention twisting and near-reinvention. The film starts with a very high-concept idea, which could have easily been used as the basis for the next Adam Sandler production at the studios. Not that there's anything wrong with that...actually, if it's Sandler we're talking about, there's always plenty wrong. So let's say Ben Stiller/Owen Wilson instead. Waters starts off the film with a fairly traditional set-up of his concept, but then quickly takes it off on a variety of unexpected paths. The roads less traveled. You might anticipate and I guess this qualifies for a SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!! that the Simon Baker character falls in love with one of the ladies on his list midway through, but what happens to that true love is off-the-charts unpredictable. There are lots of similar expectation-defying moments throughout, and they're often laugh-out-loud funny.The choice to cast Simon Baker, rather than the popular comedian of the week, was also a wise one. Baker certainly has comedic chops, but he feels considerably straighter and is more of a dramatic actor in the part than, say, Owen Wilson. Although Baker hardly looks like every man, he does add an everyman quality to the performance which grounds it and makes Baker more of a straight man to the insanity happening around him.I've read a few reviews which criticize the film for mixing a number of tones and genre elements. It generally annoys me when critics take this easy, lazy route to slag a film, particularly one as daring as this. In this case, any mixing is clearly a stylistic/storytelling choice and not a mistake. If you want things to play out exactly as you're comfortable and familiar with in every film, just watch your favorite DVD's over and over.My prediction is that the film will have a decent theatrical run and be HUGE in the ancillary markets. Expect this to run on cable until your hair turns gray, Office Space-style. But get out to theaters and see it if you can there. A film like this will play best with a large audience.