Review of Cobra (1986) by Joe A — 06 Jun 2012

As a piece of certified 80s cheese, Cobra can be a fun watch but, if you were to rate it strictly as a movie, then no, Cobra is not very good. Stallone's next movie after the smash successes of Rambo: First Blood part 2 and Rocky 4, has the Italian Stallion at the high of his ego as he struts his role as a unorthodox cop rather then acts it. Stallone plays Lt. Marion "Cobra" Cobretti, a dirtier then Harry cop out to stop a cult of killers on a murderous rampage in L.A. And if Cobra has to destroy half of L.A. to catch his quarry, so be it. Most of the film's $25 million budget must have went to it's star, as the film looks cheap but, it is a Cannon film and they had a knack of making even their big budget movies look cheap. The action scenes are plentiful but, are all fairly generic and the film has the look of a TV movie. Director George Pan Cosmatos directs very by the numbers and gone is the energy and and more polished big budget look that he gave his other Stallone collaboration, Rambo: First Blood Part 2. As for the cast, Stallone is trying so hard to create another iconic character that his Cobra comes off more of a cartoon character with his sunglasses, Cobra emblemed 45 and suped-up 50s muscle car. If we didn't get the point, Dirty Harry stars Reni Santoni and Andrew Robinson are also cast as partner and pain-in-the-ass police detective respectively. And rounding out the bland cast as a witness in peril is former Stallone spouse and Flava Flav squeeze, Bridgitte Neilsen and as the monosybillic cult leader is genre favorite Brian Thompson. But, when you watch Cobra from the angle of 80s nostalgia, all these negatives become fun pluses as we can now laugh at this overbombastic and shallow cop thriller complete with sythesizer score and montage scenes with generic pop songs blaring in the background. So basically it depends on what frame of mind you watch Cobra in as to whether you enjoy it or not. Rated here as 80s cheese.

EXTRA TRIVIA: Stallone's script for Cobra was originally written for Beverly Hills Cop when he was initially involved in that project. He and his script left to do the more serious Cobra and Eddie Murphy took over... and the rest is history.