Cobra (1986)

Cobra is THE GREATEST movie of all time. It has everything; Stallone, a bad guy named the slasher, a bad guy who looks like Rizzo from grease, more product placement than any other movie ever and pizza being cut with scissors.

Fmovies: This entry in ¨Vigilante genre¨ contains amount of action and excessive violence. It concerns about Cobra(Silvester Stallone) a Rambo-alike , a rebel and violent cop. Various people are killed by furious band led by a punk (Brian Thomson). Furthermore, a beautiful cover-up(Brigitte Nielsen) is witness a mugging by the heinous criminals. The nasties stalk the gorgeous youngster who is submitted to a brutal hot pursuit and the cop protects her . Then Cobra with sun-glasses and his classic car takes the law into his own hands, searching vengeance on crooks, hoodlums, muggers, making the neighborhood safer. Cobra is determined to bring in psychotic serial killer , even if he has to break some rules. Finally, happens an exciting, edge-of-your-seat climax .

This new outing in this thrilling genre contains suspense, thrills,chills, noisy action-packed, gun-play and lots of violence. Stallone with his usual stoic acting displays amount of weapons arsenal killing nasties. Appears as secondary casting, Brian Thomson as a heinous murderous and Andy Robinson and Art Le Fleur as superior officers who are constantly arguing with Cobra . Furthermore secondaries as Val Avery,Nina Axelrod, David Rasche and the director John Herzfeld, among others. Colorful and atmospheric cinematography by Ric Waite. Outdated musical score is composed by means of synthesizer and full of songs of the 80s. The motion picture is middling directed by George Pan Cosmatos. He's a mediocre director who got a great success with ¨Tombstone¨and ¨Cassandra crossing¨ and flops as ¨Shadow conspiracy¨, ¨Leviatahan¨, ¨Escape to Athena¨ and ¨Massacre in Rome¨. This typical low grade story will appeal to Silvester Stallone fans.

Rating: * 1/2 out of ****

Cobra is an 80s flick all the way, made back in the days when macho action flicks featuring one-man armies reigned supreme, so it's technically a movie that should be right up my alley. But watching it again for the first time in over ten years, it serves more as a reminder that making a macho classic isn't quite as easy as it seems, and why Schwarzenegger's Commando will always be the standard by which the one-man army genre will be judged. Hell, forget Commando, I'd estimate Cobra is only about half as good as Dolph Lundgren's The Punisher, if that says anything about where this rates in the annals of 80s macho action cinema.

Sylvester Stallone stars as Lieutenant Marion Cobretti, a trigger-happy L.A. cop who shows little mercy to the scum of society. Naturally, he's the perfect man to protect a model (Brigitte Nielsen) who's the target of the Night Slasher (Brian Thompson), the head of a nasty cult that wants to create a new world order. They've got their sights set on Nielsen because she saw the Night Slasher exerting one of his more intense facial expressions on a particularly dark night, and that's apparently enough to deem her an eyewitness to a murder she clearly didn't see.

Anyway, it's obvious how the rest of the movie will play out; Cobretti will make out with the model, somehow keep her completely unharmed even when getting the both of them into lots of chases and shootouts, and he'll kill all the scum before riding off with the "babe" into the proverbial sunset. If you think I'm giving too much away, then you definitely haven't seen enough action movies.

While its an unwritten rule that one usually doesn't watch these kinds of action movies for plot, I think it's fair to say that one at least hopes for a fairly consistent flow in its narrative, or for the writer (in this case, Stallone himself) to offer up a compelling MacGuffin that bridges the action scenes well enough to hold interest between the shoot 'em up action. No such luck here; a fair portion of the plot is structured around the cult and their serial killings, but the film just glances over the cult's motives, and what is revealed sounds like it was (badly) ad-libbed by Brian Thompson on the spot.

Just as bad is the main story revolving around Cobretti protecting the model. Despite being a real-life couple at the time, Stallone and Nielsen have no chemistry, making their scenes together painfully awkward and unconvincing. Even Schwarzenegger and Rae Dawn Chong worked way better together in Commando and there wasn't even any attempted romantic tension in that relationship. If you actually rooted for Cobretti and the chick to get together by the end, you are a better person than me.

Even with all these faults, what ultimately kills the movie is that it's just not much fun. The action scenes are fairly plentiful, and a few of them are even reasonably decent (the big car chase is well-shot and edited, and a later chase scene where Cobretti mows down a lot of bikers from the back of a pick-up truck hints at the fun flick this could have been if it had boasted more self-knowingly outrageous moments like that), but without any care towards plot or character, it's hard to get involved in all the mayhem, especially when a lot of these scenes are mired in boring clichés (the final showdown is set in a foundry; argghh, I hate that setting!).

Even worse is the fact that almost everyone invol

Cobra fmovies. This picture is classic 1980s action at its best and most cliche. My favorite scene is right at the top of the movie. Cobra is in a supermarket, on the trail of a guy who's killing safeway employees for fun. Cobra's in pursuit. He passes a 6-foot display case of Coors light. Stops. Cracks a can. Takes a sip. Tosses it on the floor. Continues in pursuit.

It reminds me of another 80s action flick few will remember called the Punisher with Louis Gossett Junior. Some dufus is carrying pizza into the torture chamber where LGJ is getting it. EXCEPT HE'S NOT GETTING IT, guys. He's already knocked the guy out with a punch and a pressure point maneuver. Then, Gosset neutralizes the pizza guy. But rather than let the pizza, which is all over the floor, go to waste, he kneels down, takes a couple of pieces, bites, then leaves the room as though nothing has happened.

I learned a lot from Cobra and Stallone's character, Marion Cobretti. First, I need to get a "nitro" option on my car so I can go as fast as he did. Second is a great line to reel in the girl, next time you're out on a date and she's using too much catsup on her fries.

"Do you have a lifejacket?" "Why" "To save all the french fries that are drowning."

This movie is a classic for 80s action lovers. I own the DVD and highly recommend it.

With two Rambo movies, First Blood (1982) and Rambo : First Blood part II (1985) under his commando belt, Sylvester Stallone had confidently confirmed himself as the Box Office king of the Action Thriller genre. With all the gingoism and American flag waving that went with the comic strip adventures of the worlds favourite fictional viet nam vet, Stallone steps up a gear into Cobra (1986), one of the tightest, exciting, well written and under-rated action movies of the past few decades. Stallone takes British crime novelette Running Duck (US - Fair Game} from celebrated writer Paula Gossling and gives it the full Rambo gloss treatment. Gone from the novel is the alcoholic schizoid lead character and in his place is Marion Cobretti, the typical, four square Stallone character, and the story is all the better for this. Stallone' screenplay is pretty simple, and so is the under lying message that evil is a force that must be met on its own terms. So what we have is a violent actioneer chock full of punch ups, car chases and shooting. Sadly, the script isn't developed enough, and the Rocky elemnts so typical of Stallone's movies at this point, IE, the underdog hero who everyone is against, is used to the maxim here. Unlike the Rocky movies, the glare of humour isn't up to scratch, and so a great many of the lead characters are unlikeable. So what? Wasn't this the case with thrillers such as Seven or Resovoir Dogs? However, Rambo Director George Pan Cosmatos gives a fresh coat of paint to this particular movie, adding stylish touches of film noir to the action genre in a way that precceeds Face/Off (1997) and a whole host of successors. Bridgette Nielsen is the movies real surprise, giving a likeable and sincere performance as Helgar, under the watchful eye of her then Husband. What is really surprising is that Cosmatos manages to succesfully blend into the action genre touches of classic and contemporary horror movies such as Friday the Thirteenth and John Carpenters Halloween with the chilling depiction of the Night Slashers. The movie also contains some of the most exhilerating action and chase sequences, particularly in the movies climax, where Cobra lets rip unto the Night Slashers men. This is an under-rated gem, a very efficient Stallone/George Pan Cosmatos vehicle, and very possibly the best ever Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus/Cannon Film Group picture ever produced. .......................................................................

8/10

This film deserves much more credit than it has received. Stallone is looking great with tight jeans and stubble chewing on a matchstick which comes in handy in the final bloodshed showdown. Stallone plays Marion Cobretti in a superb action packed thriller filled with one liners in a funny relationship with his partner played by Reni Santoni, sexual tension with his female witness in protective custody played by his then wife Brigitte Nielsen and a raging fury from Stallone intent on eliminating the ruthless killers headed by Brian Thompson (Arnold Schwarzenegger rips his heart out in The Terminator and Jean-Claude Van Damme knocks him out with one kick in Lionheart). These people mean business and Andrew Robinson (Scorpio in Dirty Harry) thinks that a subtle solution can easily be thought of to take them out but it is only Stallone's violent tactics that can ultimately save the day. Essentially Rambo with a badge with the heart of Rocky. Stallone fans will be very pleased in a film that combines all areas of cinema, not just action. Comedy, romance and a great cast complement this already excellent film that Stallone has written which incorporates material from Beverly Hills Cop when he was meant to play Axel Foley. Better that Eddie Murphy Played it because Stallone has a chance to make this two years on. Trivia: Eddie Murphy looks at the Cobra poster in Judge Reinhold's bedroom in Beverly Hills Cop II that Brigitte Nielsen is also in. If you like the Dirty Harry films, Steven Seagal cop films and a Stallone fan in general this is a great film with an excellent soundtrack. Talking of Steven Seagal and soundtrcks, on the trailer for Seagal's Marked For Death it features "Chase", a Sylvester LeVay track from Cobra.