PHOTO COURTESY FOCUS FEATURES

If I didn’t know better, I’d say that “Honey Don’t!” was born out of Ethan Coen trying to see how fast he could write a script.

Maybe someone bet him that he couldn’t finish a screenplay, say, on a single cross-country flight. He sits down, he opens his laptop, and he throws in a bunch of dead bodies and accidental murders and famous people acting silly — you know, Coen stuff. Then the plane landed and he hastily typed: “The End.”

Actually, the way “Honey Don’t!” turned out, I doubt it would’ve taken a whole cross-country flight. He could’ve wrapped up and had enough time left to watch a (better) in-flight movie.

Much like last year’s “Drive-Away Dolls” — also co-written with Tricia Cooke, and also directed without brother and longtime collaborator, Joel — “Honey Don’t!” is set in a madcap if hapless criminal underworld, with plots coming to nothing and brute force standing in for criminal savvy. Also like “Drive-Away Dolls,” it stars Margaret Qualley; this time, she’s a private investigator curious about a mysterious phone call she received from a woman who promptly turned up dead.

Unlike last year’s film, none of it works. “Honey Don’t!” is only intermittently funny in spite of a cast of talented comic performers; Aubrey Plaza, Charlie Day and Chris Evans are here, but they seem lost when it comes to what they should be doing.

It all seems very thrown together. Plaza is a cop who helps Qualley’s character — and later does a lot more than that with her — but the relationship feels forced. Evans is the charismatic leader of a cultish church, but his desires are clear from the beginning and his criminal activities seem incidental to the plot. There’s a bit about a wayward niece and an estranged father.

There’s also a whole lot of sex, which feels less like a function of the story and more like a seasoning used to add flavor to a bland dish. (To be fair, movies have been grabbing that spice off the rack for a very long time.)

There are other misses in the Coens’ filmography (whether separate or together), but none feel as unmotivated as “Honey Don’t!,” which is not a failure or success so much as a non-entity.

“Drive-Away Dolls” was a promising and delightful narrative debut for Ethan Coen as a solo filmmaker. Unfortunately, “Honey Don’t!” indicates that he may not have too many fresh ideas in the tank — or, at the very least, that he’s not yet sure when an idea is done marinating.

My Rating: 4/10

“Honey Don’t!” is now playing in theaters.