Sex and Death 101 (2007)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Daniel Waters

Writer (WGA):

Daniel Waters (written by)

Release Date:

22 February 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

One Man. One List. 101 Women. Some Fantasies Are Too True to Be Good.

Plot:

A guy's life is turned around by an email, which includes the names of everyone he's had sex with and ever will have sex with. His situation gets worse when he encounters a femme fatale (Ryder) who targets men guilty of sex crime.

Plot Keywords:

Sex | Death | Stripper | List | Bachelor Party

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Simon Baker	...	Roderick Blank
Winona Ryder	...	Death Nell / Gillian De Raisx (#101)
Robert Wisdom	...	Alpha
Tanc Sade	...	Beta
Patton Oswalt	...	Fred
Mindy Cohn	...	Trixie
Keram Malicki-Sánchez	...	Master Bitchslap
Julie Bowen	...	Fiona Wormwood
Neil Flynn	...	Zack
Corinne Reilly	...	Lizzie
Cindy Pickett	...	Roderick's Mother
Winter Ave Zoli	...	Alexis the Fast Food Beauty
Dash Mihok	...	Lester
Bryan Fuller	...	Buzzkilling Bodyguard (as Bryan Okes Fuller)
Jessica Kiper	...	Precious / Carlotta Valdes (#30)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexual content and language.

Runtime:

Germany:100 min (European Film Market) | USA:100 min | USA:117 min (Starz)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:R | Italy:T | Singapore:R21 | Portugal:M/16 | Australia:MA | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Avenue Pictures Productions

Trivia:

The list of lovers also includes Selena Kyle (Catwoman's real name), Kitty Twist (Jane Fonda's role in "Walk on the Wild Side"), Barbarella Pygar (formed from Fonda's "Barbarella" character and its blind angel Pygar), Candace Christian (the full name of the title character of the 1968 sex romp "Candy"), Annabelle Lee (the title of an Edgar Allan Poe poem), Carlotta Valdes (a character in "Vertigo"), and Gillian De Raisx (a modification of the 15th-century aristocratic French serial killer Gilles De Rais).

Goofs:

Factual errors: The school bus driver's nametag has a commonly misspelled word: "Your" instead of "You're".

Quotes:

Gillian: Some dreams are too true to be good.

Movie Connections:

References Caddyshack (1980)

Kind of intriguing, but too much of everything

"Sex and Death 101" tries to be so many things at the same: a romantic flick, a dark comedy, a mystery-drama and a highly philosophical movie in the vein of "Matrix" (even including a white room where existential questions are discussed). Well, as I've said in the headline, the movie definitely does have its intriguing moments and there are quite a few meaningful lines in the script.

However, "Sex and Death 101" is too volatile to really be successful in any of the genres it touches. The story takes a thousand twists and turns. It's too cynical to be romantic, too shallow to be profound and too erratic to blow your mind. Characters are introduced and forgotten about in 10 minute-intervals and all of the main characters' friends just kind of disappear at the end, when Winona Ryder's character finally comes into the picture. Make no mistake, Ryder doesn't play a huge role in the whole movie. Her character seems awfully constructed and forced into the script. When the whole story is finally resolved it doesn't really make sense and leaves you totally uncertain of what the hell it was you just saw.

"Sex and Death 101" isn't the worst movie you could rent, but it's certainly pretty strange. I don't even know whom to recommend this to. Fans of Winona Ryder will not be happy with the little amount of screen time she gets. Friends of romcoms will find fault with both, the amount of rom and of com in this. To enjoy "Sex and Death 101" you probably just have to accept the fact that you don't know what you're gonna get. And, hey, that's kind of what the movie is about, too, I guess.