'Sex and Death 101' tries to be too many things. Looks like creator Daniel Waters couldn't make up his mind on what he wanted this to be. It tries to be philosophical but lacks depth. It tries to be a romantic comedy but lacks heart. It tries to be a black comedy but lacks wit. It tries to be mysterious but there are too many twists with no layer. It bounces from one genre to another without even taking the time to settle on anything. Perhaps, 'Sex and Death 101' may have looked better on paper which maybe why actors like Simon Baker, Winona Ryder and Julie Bowen agreed to be in it. Baker does a good job as he suits his role. Bowen does an adequate job. Ryder doesn't have much screen time as one might assume but she's alright. Leslie Bibb is brilliant as an aspiring writer whom Roderick falls for. Mindy Cohn is a scene stealer as Roderick's lesbian secretary and friend.'Sex and Death 101' does have a few funny sequences that made me chuckle but other than that it's pretty much a halfbaked dish with parts of various ingredients, none of which have been adequately used.

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.

This movie makes very little sense. The whole thing is exceedingly bizarre. But somehow the movie kind of works. Simon Baker turns in a fine performance in the leading man role and it his charm which more than anything else enables the movie to be considered at least a mild success.Baker plays successful executive Roderick Blank who is about to be married. And then something strange happens. He receives an anonymous e-mail which lists, in chronological order, the names of every woman he has ever slept with. Bizarre to be sure but not a crisis as long as his wife to be is the last name on the list. She's not. She's number 29. There are 101 names on the list. Roderick initially shrugs it off as some kind of practical joke being perpetrated by his friends. Then again how would his friends know the names, in order, of every woman he's ever slept with? When Roderick accidentally (yes, accidentally) has sex with woman number 30 on the list he realizes there's something going on here. Looks like that wedding's not going to happen after all. Apparently there's a higher power at work. What is that higher power you ask? Well you see there's this computer which apparently knows everything. And it occasionally spits out random pointless information...like lists of women that men will sleep with for example. This is all explained by the three men who work with the computer in a mysterious, futuristic-looking office. These men are named Alpha, Beta and Fred. Told you this movie was bizarre.Anyhow it's pretty apparent where the sex in the movie's title comes from. Yes a multitude of women come and go as Roderick crosses off names on his list. But what about the death part? Well that's where Winona Ryder comes in. She plays Death Nell, a shadowy figure lurking mostly in the background of the movie, who goes around seducing men and then putting them into comas. But only men who deserve it you see, sexual deviants of some kind. Death Nell becomes a feminist hero, Roderick goes on sleeping with all these different women and hey, do you think perhaps these two characters might be destined to meet? Well I certainly hope so or else this whole thing is going to be rather pointless.For a supposed comedy this movie isn't particularly funny. No real belly laughs to be had here, maybe a mild chuckle or two. It seems that Patton Oswalt, in playing Fred, is set up to be the designated funny guy but he's really not that funny at all. There are a few good moments here and there but there are a lot of times where the movie drags and there's nothing funny or even interesting going on. The plot perks up a bit when after sleeping with all these random women Roderick actually ends up in a quasi-serious relationship with a doctor played by Leslie Bibb. But that relationship comes with complications. And we know that this woman is not the last woman on the list so inevitably it's back to the parade of women in Roderick's life. There are times where it seems the movie is close to falling apart completely but Baker, who really has to carry things pretty much by himself, manages to hold it together and in the end it's a relatively enjoyable movie. Baker is excellent, Ryder does OK with minimal screen time and there's also room for another somewhat familiar face as playing Roderick's lesbian secretary Trixie is Mindy Cohn. Yes that would be Natalie of Facts of Life fame. You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have...a reasonably decent movie. That's Sex and Death 101.

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.