Movie Details
| Title: | Cobra | |
| Director: | George P. Cosmatos | |
| Year: | 1986 | |
| Genre: | Action | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 12.30.22 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (1)
- Tombstone
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 12.30.22 | Internet | Tonight's double feature is gonna be like a case study between an 80s action movie and a 2020s action movie. At least that's the idea. It starts with this, which was Stallone's and George Cosmatos' follow-up to Rambo: First Blood Part 2. I always thought of it as Stallone's answer to Schwarzenegger's Commando, and I remember not thinking much of it when it came out. At the time I was definitely in the Arnie camp when it came to this particular rivalry although today I do recognize that a lot of Stallone's credits go to writing and sometimes directing his vehicles as well as acting which is worth noting. This is not one of his best. Reading the imdb trivia it seems like the first cut was 40 minutes longer with a lot of the gore and gags being on-screen and the story making a tiny bit more sense, but for various reasons they cut it down to 90 minutes to allow for more screenings per theater. I have to say... even though the best part of this movie is a pale shadow of the best part of Rambo (the part where he kills dudes over and over again in increasingly fun and ridiculous ways), the rest of the movie is probably not saved by another half hour. It would make all the Night Slasher scenes more interesting though. I don't know how there can be a satanic cult with knives and axes as their weapon of choice and we barely see ANY on-screen deaths. I mean, the garden shed scene of Commando alone has more murder and mayhem than this entire movie. The scene where the Night Slasher is chasing (a young and long-haired) Brigitte Nielson through the hospital he kills like 5 guys with his crazy-ass knife but we see almost none of it. Even the climax of the film, the one moment I leaned forward and though "oh damn, shit's getting real", gets deflated by an awkward shot of legs on fire then dissolves to random flames. I wanted to see the hanging guy enter the ring of fiery death! Give me the ring of fiery death! Jesus! So without the visceral surprise of decent kill scenes, what we're left with is an adequate car chase, some sub-par quips ("I'm the future!" / "No, you're history" *doesn't shoot gun even though he has his little laser site right on him*), the goddamn match in Stallone's goddamn mouth, and lots of bad songs. So, looking for something good to say, I suppose you could celebrate this film as a product of its era, right? Like, the same crowd that likes Tango & Cash and Commando and Road House can have fun with Stallone's Venice bachelor pad and cool car and leather driving gloves. And Seinfeld fans might like to see Poppie as a "garbage gut" cop sidekick. I think I still liked it about as much as I did back then, which is to say the poster is probably all you need. Now that I've seen it again, this maybe should've been paired with Dirty Harry. Stallone's Cobretti is clearly in that break-all-the-rules cop vein and he's hunting a serial killer modeled after a real-life guy (Richard Ramirez here, Zodiac in Dirty Harry), and both the guy who played Scorpio and Poppie were in both movies! It would also probably showcase what I'm going for tonight with how different the 70s take is compared to the explosion-fueled sheen of the 80s. As it is, next up is a more "modern" take on the action hero. Let's see how it compares. |
