Cobra
directed by George P. Cosmatos
starring Sylvester Stallone, Brigitte Nielsen
Arrow Video
Following a great year in 1985, when Sylvester Stallone hit box office and cultural gold with Rocky IV and Rambo: First Blood Part 2, he decided to roll out a new character certain to spark a new, successful franchise, with the renegade cop thriller, Cobra. While the film was a box office hit, it didn’t land in the cultural zeitgeist in quite the way Stallone was banking on, and the string of films centered around Marion “Cobra” Cobretti and his Zombie Squad inside the LAPD never materialized. Over time, largely through the film’s omnipresence on cable TV, Cobra has amassed a cult following, and the fans have been rewarded with a loaded 4K UHD release from Arrow Video.
The police in Los Angeles are desperate to stop a brutal serial killer, but unorthodox detective Marion “Cobra” Cobretti (Sylvester Stallone) thinks the murders are the work of a cult and not a single perpetrator. His superiors think Cobretti’s outside-the-law tactics are unnecessary in this case, until Ingrid Knudsen (Brigitte Nielsen) steps forward as a witness confirming Cobretti’s theory. When the cult tries to murder Ingrid, Cobra must take her on the road to protect her at any cost, which is complicated by a cult member in the police ranks. With nowhere left to run, Cobra makes a stand against the cult in a brutal, bloody, and fiery climax.
Directed with a nice bit of visual flair by George P. Cosmatos, the film really is non-stop action. Anything that doesn’t propel the narrative forward has been excised from the film. There is no backstory, virtually no exposition, just a series of action set pieces, half of which could be at home in a slasher movie — especially a scene where the main cult killer hacks through a hospital bathroom door in an attempt on Brigitte Nielsen’s life and a final showdown in a steel foundry that pre-dates Terminator 2 by several years, which is curious as Cobra is so clearly indebted to James Cameron’s original The Terminator (1984).
Why Cobra didn’t stick is probably just due to timing. It made good money but didn’t become a pop culture touchstone the way unorthodox cop movies like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon would stoke imaginations just a year or two later. Cobra had enough cultural cachet to get lampooned in Beverly Hills Cop 2, which may also speak to why it didn’t land better. It was seen as too over the top to be taken seriously, which is a shame, because it isn’t a serious movie, but is an absolute blast that holds up quite well.
Arrow Video gives Cobra a gorgeous 4K UHD release with a transfer that does a great job with the night scenes, reminding us of a time when night shots were actually lit, so you could see what was happening on-screen. The film comes with a treasure trove of new and archival extras, including three audio commentaries (Director George P. Cosmatos, Josh Nelson and Martyn Pedler, and Kim Newman and Nick de Semlyen) as well as interviews with cast and crew and two video essays from Martyn Conterio and Abbey Bender. This is a banger of a disc for this under-appreciated bit of ’80s action cinema.
It’s dumb as you please, but entertaining as hell.
