I woke up in the middle of the night last night and in my quest to find something to watch I stumbled upon a 1980s action movie that I've heard about.
Cobra 1986
Viewed on: Cinemax
Studio: Cannon Group through Warner Brothers
Starring
Sylvester Stallone ... Lieutenant Marion 'Cobra' Cobretti
Brigitte Nielsen ... Ingrid
Reni Santoni ... Sergeant Gonzales
Andrew Robinson ... Detective Monte
Brian Thompson ... Night Slasher
John Herzfeld ... Cho
Lee Garlington ... Nancy Stalk
Art LaFleur ... Captain Sears (as Art La Fleur)
Marco Rodríguez ... Supermarket Killer (as Marco Rodriguez)
Ross St. Phillip ... Security Guard
Val Avery ... Chief Halliwell
David Rasche ... Dan
John Hauk ... Low Rider
Nick Angotti ... Prodski
Nina Axelrod ... Waitress
Plot
A gang of neo-fascist thugs, led by the self-proclaimed 'Night Slasher', are breaking into people's homes & cars, then killing them at random. When one of these thugs holds up a food store & takes hostages, Lt. Marion Cobretti (Stallone) - an intense, take-no-prisoners cop, is brought onto the scene to end the hostage-taking. Ranting bizarrely about a 'New World', the man levels a sawed-off shotgun at Cobretti, who hits him with a knife, then guns him down when the man refuses to put down his weapon. Later that night, another murder occurs, attributed to the Night Slasher - and the next day, another one. This one is witnessed by a young woman, Ingrid Knutsen (Nielsen). She drives away before the thugs can kill her, but it isn't long before some creepy-looking people start making attempts on her life - and Cobretti's. Cobretti plans to move the only witness to the blood spree upstate, but with inside information, the thugs follow them. And a battle for survival rages between Cobretti and the thugs.
My thoughts
Heh, that IMDB plot summary nicely tells the whole story
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
Yes, the plot isn't that deep or complicated but it was the 1980s. As you can see from the details above this movie was produced by the famous (or infamous) Cannon Group which was headed up by two Israelis who made it relatively big in Hollywood during that decade. This fact alone tips off the viewer that the movie is going to be relatively cheap and chock full of action. (Chuck Norris did some films for them)
Anyways, one of the things that surprised me is that they got the services of one of the top action stars of the day to star in this film and you immediately find out why in the credits as Sly is credited as the screenwriter. Interestingly enough, while researching the movie I found out that most parts of this script was in Stallone's script for BEVERLY HILLS COP which he was signed to star and script but Paramount felt it was too expensive for them. As noted above Stallone's the intense, take no prisoners Cobra of the movie title. The portrayal is actually interesting. He had this gritty, rogue look to him but with his partner and the woman he's protecting he actually shows that he's human.
Speaking of his partner Gonzalez the actor and the script clearly cribbed the look and style of Robert Blake's BARETTA. I found that to be a little comical. The banter between the two was also pretty funny in some ways. There's a part where after Cobreti and Gonzalez are told to shake down the city for the Night Slasher when this exchange happens:
Gonzales: You know, when this is over with, I'd like to celebrate, by punching a hole in Monte's chest!
Marion Cobretti: You know what the trouble with you is? You're too violent!
Not terribly funny on paper but within the context of the film it's pretty ironic and funny that way.
The movie is pretty violent, I'd almost say it's a bit on the cartoony side but there's too much blood for that to be the case. It does fall into the conventions of some 80s fare in that the actual death scenes aren't that gruesome. The action sequences are well filmed and edited and there's actually some tension to them especially during the scene in the hospital where the Night Slasher is bashing the washroom door with a spiked object while Ingrid is screaming her head off for help.
The actual death of the Night Slasher is pretty interesting as well. I won't give it away but the Night Slasher and the cop that was on the inside to help him confront Cobreti and Ingrid in some factory with a ton of fire and heat.
I know this isn't exactly "classic" but I found it interesting. The movie is loosely based on a book called Fair Game which later got another adaptation in 1995 starring William Baldwin and Cindy Crawford.
My rating: 2 out of 5 stars.