Sex and Death 101

Reviewed by:
Eric Alt

Directed by: Daniel Waters

The Skinny: A suave marketing exec on the verge of hanging up his bachelor status gets a mysterious e-mail listing every woman he's ever had sex with…and every woman he will have sex with. Needless to say, the fact that there are about 70 women listed after his soon-to-be wife puts a crimp in the wedding plans and leads to lots of sex and soul-searching. But mostly sex. Oh, and there's a man-hating sort of serial killer on the loose. Is she a random plot point that has nothing to do with the main character? Is this your first time watching a movie?

The Good: The list basically turns this guy's life into a hornier version of Groundhog Day, where cover girls randomly hop into your car and you have sex with every single woman you meet again and again and again with no consequences whatsoever. It's a prime male fantasy to be sure, and the movie dives headlong into it. And it's nice to see The Facts of Life's Mindy Cohn getting some work.

The Bad: Any and all attempts at humor. Daniel Waters wrote Heathers, so he can do funny black comedy. But Sex and Death's gags are as limp and exhausted as the main character's member. And Winona Ryder's "Death Nell" serial killer is great in that it allows Ryder to play crazy (which she does all too well), but awful in that the eventual crossing of the two plots happens long after you've stopped caring about anything. Oh, and the "schoolgirls on a bus" sequence, while we applaud the idea, is so laughably bad it makes us embarrassed for Waters that he even wrote it down.

Reminded Us Of: A long-winded "I swear this is all true" sex story that your buddy once told you, one that you knew was bullshit from the get-go but let him finish anyway because you were both drunk. Only this time, you're completely sober and you have many other things you could be doing with your time.

Theater, DVD, or TNT in Five Years? Rent it, because it's the only way you can enjoy Sophie Monk's nudity unedited. Otherwise, it's no big loss.