I saw this back when I was in high school and I remember liking it. I also remember that iconic poster. I can’t remember how I came to own it, but I somehow got a hold of this giant poster and it was so big I wanted to put it on my ceiling, and I had it on the ceiling, but my father told me to take it down. Apparently it was okay to hang things on my walls, but God forbid if the ceiling got involved. Anyhow, I did find a space on the wall, and had it up for quite some time. Stallone’s machine gun he used in that film was pretty cool, and apparently the filmmakers thought so too since he’s holding it on the poster (see disc cover below). I haven’t seen this film since then, and this revisit was long overdue.
Stallone is Lieutenant Marion “Cobra” Cobretti who’s part of this special tactical force known as the “Zombie Squad.” They deal with the worst of the worst, and Los Angeles is being terrorized by a cult led by perfectly cast bad guy, Brian Thompson, in his debut role. He has minimal dialogue, and is only credited as Night Slasher. Seeing this for the second time and at a different point in my life it registered last night that this cult isn’t really defined in the film, and it was nice to see in Brian Thompson’s interview on the disc he thought so too. With Thompson’s character preferring to kill using an ax and this specially created blade that’s now as memorable as this movie. The film opens with a random shooting in a supermarket with this psycho (Marco Rodriguez), he’s part of this cult and the cryptic dialogue he spews along with Thompson’s spewing at the end of the film apparently they’re part of this “new world order who kill the weak so the strong can live,” random nonsensical manifesto shit all these psycho cult killers spout at some point in their killing career.
Well, one night this supermodel by the name of Ingrid (Brigitte Nielson in her third movie) is driving by a recent death scene, so recent the killers are still there, and for some reason Night Slasher feels the need to walk towards her passing car and get his face seen. They make an attempt on her life later on, but fail, and now Cobra gets involved. The remaining movie is him and his partner, Tony Gonzales (Reni Santoni), along with this other cop, Nancy Stalk (Lee Garlington), protecting her. Stalk is part of the cult and is the mole that leads to the massive shoot-out at the end. Surprisingly Tony lives!
Only in the last past few years have I learned this movie had a lot longer and more violent cut, with all the character development hitting the cutting room floor. I never understood why this cult goes to such great links to kill this chick. If they’re objective is to remain in the shadows, going after her pretty much gets them revealed in all their glory and how connected they are on the higher parts of the food chain. I mean, I think, they could have survived having been spotted by one person. Had they not moved heaven and earth to try and kill her Night Slasher and his chick, Stalk, wouldn’t be pushing up daisies now. Seeing this flick in the age of superhero movies, I couldn’t help but look at it through that lens and think this feels very Punisher/Judge Dredd oriented. I mean, Cobra even drives a custom car — his personal “batmobile.”
Cobra also has some very noticeable supporting characters, at the time I saw this, I only somewhat recognized Andrew Robinson who plays Detective Monte. At the time he was most notable for playing the psycho in Dirty Harry (1971), but he was just a year away from making genre movie history again with Hellraiser (1987). Art LaFleur is Captain Sears, and he’s done two other flicks I easily remember him from — Trancers (1985) and The Blob (1988), though at the time I don’t believe I had seen Trancers yet. Starting out I wasn’t a fan of Brian Thompson, I thought he was too freaky looking, but over the years he’s carved out a pretty decent filmography and each time I’ve seen him in something the more I enjoyed his work. At the time I thought this was the first time I was seeing him in a film, but he was in The Terminator (1984), as one of those punks Schwarzenegger kills after he time travels back to ’84 and needs clothing.
Too bad the longer cut couldn’t have been assembled somehow, assuming the footage is still in existence, but as it currently stands it doesn’t really hold up for me as an adult.
Warner has put out Cobra a couple of times on DVD and blu-ray, but now it’s gotten remastered by boutique distributor, Shout! Factory, and released through their genre sub-label, Scream Factory! You can buy it on Amazon and on Shout! Factory’s site!
Video/Audio/Subtitles: 1080p 1.85:1 high definition widescreen—2.0 English DTS-HD Master Audio, 5.1 English DTS-HD Master Audio—English SDH subs only
The new 2K scan (from original film elements) looks great!
Extras included . . .
- Audio Commentary With Director George P. Cosmatos
- Stalking And Slashing – An Interview With Actor Brian Thompson (26:00)
- Meet The Disease – An Interview With Actor Marco Rodriguez (12:40)
- Feel The Heat – An Interview With Actor Andrew Robinson (14:15)
- Double Crossed – An Interview With Actress Lee Garlington (9:05)
- A Work Of Art – An Interview With Actor Art LaFleur (8:23)
- Vintage Featurette (7:50)
- Teaser Trailer
- Theatrical Trailer
- Still Gallery (Photos) (56 photos)
- Stills Gallery (Poster/Lobby Cards) (65 photos)
Shout managed to score interviews with five of the actors and the best two are from Thompson and Robinson, and that’s because these are frank as fuck about their experience. Thompson has nothing good to say about late director George P. Cosmotos, and frankly the way Thompson describes him he sounded like a major dick. Robinson can’t stand the film and the only thing he likes about it is the money it gave him to buy the house he’s still living in. All the interviews are good, but those two I found to be the most eye-opening.
PHYSICAL MEDIA LIVES AT . . . 