Paula Nechak

Though the pop idol recently said that movies are his ultimate goal, the best thing about On the Line is its music.

So poorly constructed and so elementally banal that it's a shock the script was written by the same guy (Nicholas Kazan) who wrote such taut thrillers as "At Close Range" and "Reversal of Fortune."

A real dud, with few laughs, no characterization, little story, a cluster of stereotypes and clichés and just plain nothing for Foxx to do.

A big dud.

Since we never see Thomas, we can't care for him. And he's hardly a sympathetic "hero" in his treatment of women and his insistence that other characters honor his personal boundaries while he ignores theirs.

So badly plotted and written that it rarely makes much sense, even with the elementary story line.

Tries mightily to have the charm of "Bull Durham," but instead fields raunchy sex jokes, predictable story line, dumb dialogue and a lackluster love affair.

It has absolutely nothing to say -- no redeeming commentary about nihilistic, narcissistic society and its appetite for instant gratification -- which would have made it sociologically interesting, or at least sort of Faustian in theme. Instead Sex and Death 101 is as empty-headed as its protagonist.

Funny for 15 minutes and then fades into mean-spirited cruelty and stupidity.

The lapses in logic make a weak subplot about a serial killer on the loose just plain silly instead of provocative.

A perfect example of form without content.

While there are maybe two moments of genuinely clever humor, Storytelling is the work of a previously promising filmmaker who, having no new ideas, has morphed into a sniggering schoolboy intent upon being mean.

An awful, misanthropic, deadly unfunny and badly acted war-of-the-sexes travesty.

Assails with its in-your-face, repulsively compelling (like a train wreck) brutality.

What it doesn't have is a script that has anything original, cohesive, or, gasp -- funny -- to say.

There's a vicious, crude nerve that snakes through this sequel and it leaves no group unscarred -- but unfortunately, women and the handicapped take most of the thrusts.

Tepid and only sporadically amusing.