Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death / Invasion of the Love Drones is the first volume of the Racy Reels from the Something Weird Vault series by Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video.  Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death / Invasion of the Love Drones has been released as a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack and actually contains three films.  Double-D Experiment has also been included on the release, but only on the Blu-ray not on the DVD.  All three films are radically different than each other but all three of them have a science fiction theme to them which is likely why they were selected to all be on this one release.  The only real extra that has been included for the release, unless you count Double-D Experiment as an extra, is a booklet with the essay “Revolution BLUE!” by Jeremy Richey on Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death and Invasion of the Love Drones.

Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death

The Film (2.5/5)

Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death is an interesting softcore mash-up of the science fiction, action, and the roughie genres.  Despite its low budget, Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death succeeds at more than it fails at, although the softcore sex scenes are a major failure so depending on what one is looking at from the film will depend on how much one gets out of it.

Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death is a post-apocalyptic story, where the term story is used rather loosely since the film offers more of a scenario that plays out than an actual story arc.  Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death takes place in the year 2062 after the human race has managed to almost completely wipe itself out.  The few surviving members of humanity that are still loyal to the state live in color-coded housing bubbles with military protection from the survivors that are no longer loyal to the state.  Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death focuses on the yellow encampment protected by General Byron White and the nearby red encampment as the news that within a few days all of humanity will perish.

Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death succeeds very well at creating a post-apocalyptic atmosphere, although it is one that succumbs to a standard problem of the low-budget science fiction films of the time did where the futuristic cars look very dated.  Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death also succeeds well with the action sequences.  Bill M. Ryusaki, a martial arts master, was one of the technical supervisors for the karate sequences, which likely helped the film a lot.

Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death fails at the softcore sex sequences.  The softcore sex sequences look awkward and don't appear as if they were of overall interest to the director Antony Weber.  Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death also fails at having a coherent story.  There is a story present within the images that are shown to the viewer, however, it appears as if some major plot points were left out often leaving the viewer a little mystified as to what exactly is going on at any given time.

Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death has enough to offer fans of the low-budget post-apocalyptic genre, however, fans of the softcore film genre will likely be disappointed by the offerings presented here.

Audio/Video (3/5)

Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video have done an acceptable to good job with their Blu-ray and DVD combo pack release of Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death depending on how you, the viewer, feel about what they have done with their release.  Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death was shot on film and Pop Cinema has used a 35mm print as the master for their release.  Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death is presented in the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p on the Blu-ray and 480p on the DVD.  The print used shows wear but is in reasonably good shape.  The print exhibits artifacts, print damage, and grain – which can be heavy at times.  There are some points when the image looks overly soft, which may be a production issue and not due to the transfer on this release.

Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural audio track on both the Blu-ray and the DVD.  The audio sounds good with few defects.  The dialog in the film is clear and easy to understand at all times.

The one issue with this release is that Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video have altered this release from the original version.  The film doesn't appear to be cut, or to have any added footage, however, there are added sound effects to the soundtrack throughout the film, most of which stick out like a sore thumb.  There wasn't any need to modify the film.

Extras (0/5)

Unless you count a newly made trailer for Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death by Pop Cinema an extra, there aren't any extras on the release for this film.

Double-D Experiment

The Film (1.5/5)

Double-D Experiment is a softcore film from an uncredited director that strives to be a sci-fi comedy but ultimately fails at everything except supplying copious amounts of nudity.  Double-D Experiment is a poorly pieced together mess that is stitched from stock footage and footage that was shot for the film.  The plot is poor and it is almost impossible to discern was is going on in the film.

The story for the film is that Doctor Andre Dildo (Pete Dawson) is allergic to women so he figures out how to create his own “women.”  His friend Ernie (Tommy Toole) gets suspicious of Dr. Dildo's womanly prowess and starts to investigate Dr. Dildo determined to find out Dr. Dildo's secret allure to women.

This reviewer has probably made the film sound better than it really is with the plot synopsis, your average episode of Scooby-Doo, Where are You! has more substance than Double-D Experiment (Don't take this as a knock to Scooby-Doo, Where are You! as this reviewer loves that show.) and your average episode of Scooby-Doo, Where are You! is also more believable than this celluloid mess.  The tunnel to Dr. Dildo's secret laboratory is hidden behind a small wall painting.  A talking skull shows up briefly.  The high tech secret laboratory has cheap metal folding chairs.  The miniature use is awful and the set design makes no sense when viewing the miniature.  The list of problems with Double-D Experiment goes on and on.

The softcore sex scenes are average, at best, but often fail to even reach that low pinnacle.  From all the aspects present, it certainly appears that before production began someone actually had an interesting concept for the film, however, it appears that the very low budget and poor filmmaking and editing abilities marred the final product beyond salvage.  This reviewer can't recommend Double-D Experiment to anyone.

Audio/Video (1.5/5)

Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video have done an awful job with their Blu-ray release of Double-D Experiment.  Double-D Experiment is only included on the Blu-ray and was shot on film.  At one time, Double-D Experiment was transferred from a film print, however, the master for this edition was clearly not the actual print.  Double-D Experiment is presented in the Academy aspect ratio of 1.33:1 in 480i.  The video quality on this release looks awful.  The transfer is a murky standard definition transfer, which looks bad even for standard definition – almost a video rip quality to be honest.  The print contains print damage and artifacts and is rife with jumps and tears.  The colors in the film are dull and flat and the film gets so murky at times it is nearly unwatchable.  This transfer is bound to disappoint everyone.

Double-D Experiment is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural audio track.  The audio is in poor shape as well.  There are pops in the audio and the audio sounds muffled.  There are jumps in the audio.  There are times that the dialog can be hard to discern.

This reviewer is assuming that Double-D Experiment has been altered as well, although the methodology is unknown, since the film is also listed as an “enhanced version,” which seems to mean the altered by Pop Cinema version.  As to why Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video have chosen to include Double-D Experiment in a very poor standard definition transfer on a Blu-ray is unknown.  They should have remastered the film in high definition if they were going to include it on a Blu-ray.

Extras (0/5)

There aren't any extras on the release for Double-D Experiment.

Invasion of the Love Drones (4/5)

The Film

Invasion of the Love Drones appears to have been originally shot as a softcore adult film, during the days when softcore films were losing out in popularity to the newly emerging hardcore films, despite the presence of many well-known hardcore actors and actresses in the film.  However, by the time Invasion of the Love Drones had made it to the theaters, hardcore inserts had been added to the film so that it would be hardcore.  This reviewer can't find any record of the original softcore version of Invasion of the Love Drones ever playing at a theater.

Invasion of the Love Drones is a sci-fi comedy that aims low instead of high.  The story for Invasion of the Love Drones is that a spacecraft, the Copulos, has been spotted near Earth.  George Revis (Eric Edwards) is selected as a sex link between the Copulos and Earth and gets teleported from Manhattan to the starship and turned into the primary love drone.  The love drones purpose is to invade Earth to collect the sex energy of humans that the alien race of the Orgasms needs to survive.  Dr. Femme (Viveca Ash) finds out about the love drones and tries to save humanity from the Orgasms.

Invasion of the Love Drones opens with a Rod Sterlingesque monologue, reminiscent of the one from the opening to The Twilight Zone, before the action moves to New York City.  At no times does Invasion of the Love Drones try to take itself seriously, which is exactly why the film manages to work.  From the horrible faked robotic voices of the love drones, to the poor special effects, to the cheesy sets, to the subpar acting (from cast members that are known for their ability to act), everyone involved seemed to know this was just a cheesy sex comedy from start to finish.

The softcore sex scenes look nice and are well done.  While viewers who prefer their sex to be hardcore will find Invasion of the Love Drones to be lacking, viewers who enjoy softcore sex with silly plots to their liking.  Nothing about Invasion of the Love Drones could be considered great, or even good, cinema, but it is a helluva lot of fun to watch.

Audio/Video (3/5)

Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video have done an acceptable to good job with their Blu-ray and DVD combo pack release of Invasion of the Love Drones, depending on how you view how they handled this release.  Invasion of the Love Drones was shot on film and it looks like Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video used a 35mm print for this release.  Invasion of the Love Drones is presented in the anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio of 1.78:1 in 1080p on the Blu-ray and 480p on the DVD.  There print that was used was in decent shape sporting print damage, artifacts, and grain.  Some of the footage looks a little on the soft side and the stock footage looks a little more worse for wear than what was shot for the film.  There are a few jumps during the film.  The colors in the film look good.

Invasion of the Love Drones is presented with an English Linear PCM 2.0 monaural audio track on the Blu-ray and an English Dolby Digital 2.0 monaural audio track on the DVD.  There are a few pops and crackles on the audio but, for the most part, the audio is mostly defect-free.  

The caveat to this release is that Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video have included a softcore version of Invasion of the Love Drones but not the softcore version of Invasion of the Love Drones.  Had Pop Cinema or Something Weird Video actually unearthed the softcore version of Invasion of the Love Drones from before it was changed from a softcore film to a hardcore film, this reviewer would have no issue with this release, however, this edition was clearly cut by Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video as portions of a non-sexual nature have been cut from this version in addition to the hardcore material.  Some footage appears to have been copied and added several times to places it never was originally in this version as well.  In total, at least 12 minutes have been excised from this version of Invasion of the Love Drones.

Extras (0/5)

Unless the viewer counts a newly made trailer for Invasion of the Love Drones by Pop Cinema to be an extra, there aren't any extras on this release for the film.

Overall

Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video have done some aspects of their Blu-ray and DVD combination pack release of Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death and Invasion of the Love Drones well and other aspects horribly.  As to whether this release is worth spending your money on depends on how you view how Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video have created this release.  The transfers for Cries of Ecstacy, Blows of Death and Invasion of the Love Drones are both decent and both films are worth watching, however, Pop Cinema and Something Weird Video have altered both films from their original releases, which is unacceptable in the eyes of this reviewer.  There is a third film on the release, Double-D Experiment, which is an awful film and has an abysmal standard definition only transfer on the release.