While "Cobra" is not one of Sylvester Stallone's best movies, it is still an enjoyable action movie. and definitely one of the movies that helped establish him further in the action genre.The story in "Cobra" is very 1980s, in the sense that it is a single super cop that takes on a whole gang and emerges victorious. So it follows that generic action movie prototype that flourished in the 1980s.Sure, you will not be intellectually be challenged by "Cobra", but then again, were you ever by any of Stallone's movies? Nah, this is action as it is intended to be. So just lean back and enjoy the ride.Sylvester Stallone actually does a great job in the role of Cobra and carries the movie quite nicely. While the main villain, played by Brian Thompson, was a bit too generic and laughable."Cobra" is good enough for a nostalgic flashback to the pinnacle of Stallone's action career.

After the success of his Rocky and Rambo film franchises, Sylvester Stallone tried to create a similar phenomenon with "Cobra". Let's just say that it spawned no sequels.For a basic plot summary, Cobra focuses on "specialty" cop Marion "Cobra" Cobretti (Stallone), a part of the Zombie Squad, a special unit given nearly free reign to stomp out crime in the big city. While on the case of the seemingly unstoppable Night Slasher (Brian Thompson), Cobra comes across a key eyewitness (Bridgette Nielson) whom he must both protect and help lead him to the killer.The problem with this film is that, at its core, it really just re-hashes some old themes from cop flicks like Dirty Harry and Death Wish. Stallone's character struggles with the standard police power structure as well as envisions himself as a sort of vigilante, both themes that have already been beaten to death and in much more interesting form.Another glaring weakness is the lack of personal depth to the Cobra character. I wanted to know how/why Cobretti become the man he is, but that subject was never even touched on. Instead, the prolonged action sequences and automatic gunfire took precedence.Thus, I cannot endorse this effort as anything that rises above Stallone's other mindless action fare. Just too many tired themes and no character development.

1986: the battle for '80s action hero supremacy rages on, Sylvester Stallone countering Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commando (1985) with Cobra, a violent, ego-stroking exercise in machismo in which the Italian Stallion stars as hard-boiled, no-nonsense cop Marion Cobretti, whose policing methods make Dirty Harry look like a liberal by comparison.Clad in trench-coat and bun-hugging jeans, and wearing aviator shades while chewing a matchstick, cool-as-a-cucumber Cobretti is called in to do the jobs considered too dangerous for the other cops, which usually means gunning down armed psychos. This makes him the perfect man to protect fashion model Ingrid Knudsen (Brigitte Nielsen), who is the only person who can identify the leader of a gang of crazed killers that have been terrorising Los Angeles.Just about as '80s as an action flick can get, this film is full of embarrassing macho posturing from its star, and lots of expensive set-pieces in which cars get trashed, stuff blows up, and people are riddled with bullets, all accompanied by a nasty soundtrack of forgettable pop/rock songs. Cobretti saunters through the death and destruction suffering nary a scratch while offing countless bad guys with ease, pausing occasionally to mumble the obligatory witty one-liners (although none of them are very memorable on this occasion).Giving able support are Andrew Robinson as Cobretti's asshole colleague Detective Monte and Reni Santoni as gruff police boss Sergeant Tony Gonzales (both of whom were in Dirty Harry—coincidence? I think not). At the other end of the acting scale we have Brian Thompson as Night Slasher, who is truly awful, and Nielsen, who is as wooden as always, but who was cast for her looks and her willingness to sleep with the star (unsurprisingly, her mid-'80s career boost was as short-lived as her relationship with Sly).

Despite Cobra developing into a cult movie, many agree that this is not a memorable movie for Sylvester Stallone. The plot is somewhat nonsensical, it is riddled with 80's cheese and glam, and the villains are over the top. Many could pick the movie apart but that would just make them dislike Cobra a lot more. While Cobra was a box office hit in 1986, many critics disliked the movie dismissing it as unoriginal, derivative and unpleasantly violent.Cobra starts off with a bang when a gunman (Marco Rodriguez) goes on a shooting spree in a supermarket and takes hostages. Lieutenant Marion Cobretti aka Cobra (Sylvester Stallone) sneaks into the store, locates, and is able to negotiate with the gunman. Armed with a sawn-off shotgun and homemade bomb, the gunman starts to rant about the rise of the New Order in society where they crush the weak and strongest and smartest rule the world. Though Cobretti neutralises the situation, he is berated by Detective Monte (Andrew Robinson) for his blatant disregard for police procedures with Cobretti's renegade methods for using violence as a means to an end to take down violent criminals. The supermarket incident is one of many random and brutal thrill killings that are reoccurring throughout Los Angeles. The killing sprees are led by 'The Night Slasher' (Brian Thompson) who is also behind the rise of the New Order. The LAPD is at a loss to explain why these killings are occurring and many citizens are living in fear. Cobretti and his partner Sergeant Gonzales (Reni Santoni) finally have a lead when they are assigned to protect model Ingrid Knudsen (Brigitte Nielsen) when she becomes a witness to the Night Slasher's crimes. Cobretti and Gonzales successfully repel further attempts on Ingrid's life by the Night Slasher and his supremacist followers. Though Cobretti's prophecies about the rise of a supremacist army fall on deaf ears, Captain Sears (Art La Fleur) authorises Cobretti and Gonzales to relocate Ingrid into a safehouse outside of Los Angeles.Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote the movie, does what he does best by kicking butt and take names as Marion Cobretti. While I love him in the Rocky and Rambo series, as well as Cop Land (1997) Cobra was not one of his most memorable movies. Cobra might be good to revisit every now and then but it is certainly not on my top list. I forgot how hokey the movie was, and some parts I had a groan to myself at how corny some parts of the movie were.Brian Thompson, who has since forged a cult following as an actor, made a formidable villain who faces off against Sylvester Stallone.Reni Santoni and Andrew Robinson, who were in Dirty Harry (1971) as Harry's rookie partner and the main villain respectively, reunite here as Cobretti's partner and Cobretti's pencil pushing detective who his openly critical of Cobretti and his unorthodox methods (more or less a homage to Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan).Brigitte Nielsen wasn't the most memorable as Ingrid, the model who finds her life turned upside down after being placed into protective custody after she witnesses a murder.The late George P. Cosmatos who directed Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and Tombstone (1993) did his best with what he had but apparently it was Sylvester Stallone who was the main driving force behind Cobra.Apparently Cobra suffered through a lot of re-editing and Sylvester Stallone wielding a lot of power to have the movie edited into a manageable length and not as graphically violent. Who knew what the movie would be like if it wasn't slashed up (so to speak).Cobra has earned its reputation as a cult movie however over time it hasn't really aged that well. It is a good time filler to revisit very occasionally however, as awesome as Sylvester Stallone is, Cobra was not the most memorable movie.6/10.