The new naughty sexy romantic comedy SEX AND DEATH 101 boasts quite the angle on storyline.  The plot concerns Roderick Blank (Simon Baker from THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA), whose life is turned around by an email that includes the names of everyone he’s had sex with and ever will have sex with. The situation gets worse when he encounters a femme fatale (Winona Ryder) who targets men guilty of sex crime.

But the film is a romantic comedy (or romantic sex comedy) at heart.  Simon figures he can ditch his fiancé Miranda (Leslie Bibb) to bed down the other ladies on the list.  But true love triumphs after all.

For such a black comedy, Waters’ film plods on and on.  Despite his experimental camera work (example: swinging camera with one of his bedded ladies on a swing in a hotel room), occasionally offbeat humour (Roderick proudly making an exit only to find he walked in the wrong direction) and sexy set-ups (the erotic bedroom lesbian fight), SEX AND DEATH 101 never takes off as it should.  Problem lies in pacing (there should be more slow and much more crazed edgy montages), excessive use of voiceover, comedic timing and lack of sharper perhaps satirical humour.  Noticeable is the film’s exceptionally few laugh-out moments for a comedy.

The actors appear to be having swell time on screen – Baker bedding down the pretty ladies and Ryder hamming it up as a killer dominatrix.  At least someone is – for the viewer gets awfully, and I mean awfully bored watching the tiring antics.  Yes, that list of ladies is too long.  Writer/director Waters penned the really hilarious HEATHERS and HUDSON HAWK.  SEX AND DEATH 101 has potential as can be observed at many points in the film.  Pity the filmmakers did not get a more experienced director to do the job.  The end result is a long seduction with a disappointing climax.