Sex & Death 101 (Anchor Bay DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Film: C-
On the 20th
Anniversary of Heathers, that film
is being reissued on DVD (again) and another film from its writer Daniel Waters
(which he also directs, expecting he cannot do worse than Hudson Hawk) is also arriving on DVD from Anchor Bay. Sex
& Death 101 (2007) sounds like it could be a funny comedy about
philosophy, school, eggheads and relationships, but this is nowhere as witty
and considering it is from the creator of the overrated Heathers, no surprise it is as dumb as it is.
Instead
of something smart, we have the tale of an about-to-be-married executive (Simon
Baker) who gets a crazy e-mail that turns out to be a list (101?) of all the
women he slept with, including names he may not have heard of before. His “funny lesbian” secretary (Mindy Cohn
from The Facts of Life) is uncertain
when she opens the list and while he goes on a spree over this list and
potentially ruins his marriage, a female serial killer named ‘Death Neil’ (tay
in the wind?) played by Winona Ryder is on the loose killing men who have
crossed the line with women.
The
result is an unfunny mess too impressed with itself and though Baker can carry
the lead role, this never adds up to much and kept reminding me of how much
funnier Dane Cook could be. Too bad,
because with some ambition, this could have been interesting, but instead lands
up being a dumbed-down high concept with nowhere to go. Class dismissed!
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is soft and as shot in motion blur-prone
High Definition, color is somewhat muted and no shots are too memorable. The Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo mixes
are on the flat side with adequately recorded dialogue and a lack of soundfield
(the 2.0 goes into automatic Pro Logic if you receiver picks up the flag) that
is weak and poor for a new production. Extras
include on featurette 101 Perversions,
a trailer and audio commentary by Waters.
- Nicholas Sheffo
