Cobra
Sylvester Stallone was pretty much in his prime in the 80s, as he and Arnold redefined the action genre for all time.Ā That being said, this Sly entry from 1986 is entertaining enough despite being loaded with flaws and a lack of plausibility.Ā The inspiration is easy enough to figure out: Stallone intended this to be an 80s update / remake of the original Dirty Harry, even going so far as to cast the same actor (Reni Santoni) who played Harryās partner in the original as the Cobretti characterās partner here, and also bringing in Andrew Robinson (unforgettable as the psycho killer Scorpio in the older film) as Cobrettiās by the book commanding officer.Ā Other aspects include Stallone reading off crime statistics in the opening scene and wrangling with liberal reporters over his use of violent tactics to bring down criminals. Ā Unfortnately, the trip-up is when it comes to portraying the nemesis: While Brian Thompson is effective and scary as the leader of a group of cultist serial killers that want to bring about a ānew world orderā, the script keeps them mostly at armās length, whereas Scorpio was a frightening psycho whose effectiveness came from being smart enough to manipulate the system while getting away with the most horrific acts, this literal small army of serial killers seems to believe in nothing more profound than gruesomely murdering innocent people en masse in order to change the world, and just a little bit of insight on their true beliefs and motivations would have helped things greatly (not to mention make it more chilling), but instead they resort to such tactics as deploying several members to chop their way through a parking garage and hospital in order to eliminate a single fashion model witness (Brigitte Nielsen, playing a somewhat normal person rather than her patented European Uberbitch), thereby drawing more suspicion and witnesses to boot!Ā Itās obvious that subtlety (or common sense) is not part of their approach, but then again neither is it Cobrettiās, who has no problem shooting it out with them and driving recklessly on a crowded highway or using high powered rifles and even grenades(!) to do battle with them.Ā Thus we get a trade-off of style over substance, unlike the movie it emulates, and any chance the movie had of making a thought-provoking impact about dealing with rampant crime in modern society is usurped by a big, dumb action extravaganza with Stallone at the center of it, and he truly goes all the way with that, from the opening scene with a shotgun wielding member of the cult taking a grocery store hostage (and is more adept at shooting food than people), to a ridiculous montage showing Cobretti and his partner shaking down people for info while the model does a photo shoot with a giant toaster, to the aforementioned chase scene, to Cobretti brutally killing two cult members who came after him in his apartment (though why the LAPD canāt ID the dead cult members for a possible lead NOR do they believe Cobretti when he tells them that thereās more than one killer is beyond me) to the wild climax where Cobretti plays target practice with the motorcycle-riding cult members to the final battle with Thompson, who literally spits out a hateful monologue about how heās guaranteed to be found insane, Stallone and director George P. Cosmatos invite the viewers to check their brains at the door and just hold on.Ā Overall, an entertaining, loud, action-packed shoot-em-up, but one which pales next to the masterpiece it takes its cue fromā¦
7/10