MBunge 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.

hall895 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.

dominik96 The basic idea does work for a nice comedy, and the script author must be very disappointed what the producer had made out of it. Problem is that the director and the writer are the same person: Daniel Waters. So one essential thing learned from this movies is, that Daniel Waters should only write, and never again be the director.I won't tell the story, because reading it there wouldn't be much left for watching. If you want an average movie to spend 100 minutes, then you can watch it. If you expect a great comedy and a nice time in the cinema, then this movie is wrong for you. Escpecially because it has the appearance of a movie made only for video release but not for cinema.The overall problem is the cast. Simon Baker is good for romance movies and attorneys, but not for a comedy like this. Actors like Adam Sandler and Steve Zahn would be the right man for Roderick Blank. Simon Baker lacks the comedic element in his acting.The secretary of Roderick Blank is also a prime playing role for a comedian, but the female actor here lacks also the comedic quality.Patton Oswalt is the only actor in this movie with this quality.Overall the movie is too slow. Even the music used in this movie is just wrong for a comedy.

jpschapira Continuing with the thought that sometimes movies may honor its title, and that may save them from being bad or make them even more terrible than they are, I present to you the latter of the examples. Like "Boys", where Winona Ryder also plays a part, "Sex and Death 101" makes true justice to its title. The thing is that with a title like "Boys" there are interesting things to be said, but "Sex and Death 101"…That's all there is: sex and death.If I want those things, I can easily find them in a lame erotic film. For those who think that sex can be justified in a film and so on, I tell you that I agree; but there's nothing justifiable about the use of sex or even death in this film. "Sex and Death 101" tells the story of Roderick Blank (Simon Baker), an entrepreneur who's about getting married and receives an email with a list of every women he's had sex with and will have sex with. Any guesses? Right! They're 101 women. From that moment on, and I'm sorry if I spoil the ride for you (but all of this and more is in the unappealing trailer, if you've watched it), Roderick leaves his soon to be wife in a ridiculous scene and starts doing what probably any man would do; except that he does it in every scene and the only scenes that are not about it are about their friends (a fat, lesbian secretary and a bunch of married guys) trying to stop him with whatever excuse they find. At one point, writer/director Daniel Waters (I hope he has nothing to do with Mark) runs out of these excuses and the need for a closure takes his film to the utter bottom. But that's not everything Waters' made of as a writer. There's a woman called Miranda (the charming Leslie Bibb) who's apparently on the list but touches Roderick's heart; which leads Waters to create a joke that consists on everyone asking: "Have you f***ed her yet?". Another thing that's supposed to be funny is when his secretary makes Roderick check if her name is on the list.Oh, and there's "The Machine"! How could I forget such original invention and the origin of Roderick's problems? It's an empty space with a strong white background, and it has a crack in the wall. From that crack, it spits cards that apparently know anything anyone would like to know. The guy who controls the Machine, a possible Morpheus without glasses, says it may be an oracle but he's not sure. If you thought I had forgotten that the Great Winona Ryder plays a part, I hadn't. How could I when she's second-billed and she's not even a supporting character but a mere excuse to finalize the movie? She appears in only one scene, and gives (as convincingly as she can; it's not her fault that the script is so poor) a speech that pretends to justify the time we've wasted and fails.And Simon Baker can do better. Better than a simple smile and a cocky narration. A narration that pretends to know everything about sidestepping clichés but in the end narrates us the most convenient ending. I hate that.