Roderick Blank, Simon Baker, is a successful modern man, content with his personal and professional life. However, a week before his wedding to a suitably stuffy fiancee, Rodericks perfectly planned existence is upended by a mysterious e-mail containing the names of every woman he has had sex with and, eerily, every woman he will have sex with in the future. He is stopped in his tracks when he meets a femme fatale, Winona Ryder, who targets men guilty of sex crimes against women. Co-starring Patton Oswalt and directed by Daniel Waters, writer of the cult hit Heathers.
Sex and Death 101 presents an intriguing premise: If you were given a list of all the people you were destined to sleep with, would you give up what you currently have to fulfill that prophecy? That's exactly what happens to Roderick Blank (Simon Baker, The Devil Wears Prada, The Mentalist), who is engaged to a beautiful woman. But when he receives an anonymous message stating that he will sleep with 101 women in his lifetime--and she is but 29th on the list--he throws his life into turmoil. A dark comedy from Daniel Waters, who also penned the superb Heathers, Sex and Death 101 doesn't have the effortless flow of Waters' breakthrough film. His muse Winona Ryder returns as a disturbed woman with a jones for Roderick and a penchant for the darker side of life. But she is given too little to do to make much of an impact on the meandering plot. Much of the dialogue does little to help the matter. "Life is a lot like death," Roderick says. "It happens to everyone, whether they like it or not." The problem with Sex and Death 101 is that the line between life and death often isn't discernible. Baker and Ryder have both fared better in stronger projects. The bright spot in this movie is Mindy Cohn (The Facts of Life), who plays Roderick's put upon assistant Trixie. She proves to be more interesting and endearing than the leads, and adds wry humor to what could've been a thankless role. --Jae-Ha Kim
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.0 / 5.0
Sex And Death 101:
Interesting story. What would you do if you knew everyone you'd ever sleep with before you died? I have to say this was a real original story and played out quite well. As for the value of this Blu-Ray disc, picture was quite clear and crisp, not reference material but still a real good looking disc. The audio is audio from a comedy, so it's not packing a huge impact on your surround sound. All in all, a quite entertaining movie and a good Blu-Ray disc.
Fate Has Brought Us Together:
"Sex and Death 101" sounds like the name of a college course, and indeed, it could work well as a study companion for critical theory classes, specifically those covering the Fate versus Free Will debate. I'm reminded of "The Golden Compass," a wonderful fantasy film about keeping free will on a short leash; there are those who oppose it, which by default suggests that it exists. "Sex and Death 101," a fascinating dark comedy about a man and a list of names, seems to take the exact opposite approach. Fate... more info
Visual treat at best!:
This movie has an unusual and 'Hard-to-believe' plot and if it wasn't for watching handsome Simon Walker for 2 hours, it would be a real bore!
horrible:
I could not even get through this absurd film. Some films today are so bad as to boggle the mind. There are good filmmakers out there with good stories to be told. What is going on people? Also, this film was entirely predictable and could have been any episode of hundreds of TV shows. This plot has been done to death in many forms. Do they think we won't notice, or do they not notice. Either way it's sad.
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