Opening with the memorable staged hostage crisis at a Los Angeles supermarket director George P. Cosmatos (Rambo: First Blood Part II) offers an off beat action of its time. Starring and also written by Sylvester Stallone, in the vein of the Dirty Harry and Death Wish films it wants to say something about the violence and the disintegration of society, but any message is lost on the carnage and the disturbing idea what if cult-like killers got organised.
Stallone throws every kitchen stink genre trope into this extremely violent and police thriller. Cosmatos' location shoot feel elevates Cobra, it's a fine looking atmospheric production. The tone is a mixed bag, the pacing is a little off, mostly feeling overlong, but at times, it feels scenes or ideas are cut short as if there was some behind the scene wrangling going on set or in the editing room that seems to spill out onto the screen. At times it wants to be a cool cop thriller, at others a horror slasher.
Stallone delivers a primeval gritty performance. Brigitte Nielsen does a surprisingly great job as victim Ingrid Knudsen (in contrast to her usual steely roles). Brian Thompson oozes a menacing screen presence as the Night Slasher. In the array of familiar faced supporting cast, Marco Rodriguez is memorable as the Supermarket Killer in the films arguably most iconic scene.
Along with the 1986 soundtrack that encompasses the 80s, some setups, visuals, the poster, tagline: 'Crime is the disease. Meet the Cure', cast etc are iconic. But, from the city kills to the small town last act showdown, Cobra plays out like one long trailer moments or a series of vignettes from a better film.
Overall, nostalgia is a funny thing, the memory recall and the idea of Cobra is perhaps is more powerful and enjoyable than the film. It rightly had its success at the time. Like replaying a video game or an arcade classic, as fun as they were, sometimes they're best left to memory.
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