Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in order, I come to Cobra.
Plot In A Paragraph: Cobra (Stallone) a tough cop, who does things his own way, must protect a witness from a murderous gang led by the Night Slasher
This was Sly's attempt at a Dirty Harry type movie/franchise (right down to the opening, outright ripping off Magnum Force's opening) However an out of control ego (Its rumoured none of the supporting cast or crew were allowed to talk to Stallone during filming, insisting on his then wife being the female lead) and an attempt to make more money costs the movie dear.
The original cut over the movie was over 2 hours long. Due to concerns it might not be a hit, the final cut was 84 minutes, thereby increasing the number of screenings per day. Some of the more violent scenes were also cut to get a lower rating. A lot of plot was either removed or sped up while most of the violence and nearly every death was edited or depicted off-screen, resulting in numerous continuity errors and plot holes.
We never find much out about the axe banging cult (a mix of business men in suits and tough bikers who all brandish the same tattoo) or the "New World" that the main villain talks about. What we do get is a lot of montages, with Sly looking tough and moody behind his shades or cool and moody behind his shades. Stallones new wife (Bridgette Neilson) isn't left out either, she gets a solo montage of her modelling various outfits during a photo shoot.
George P Cosmotos (Rambo: First Blood Part 2) was directing Stallone again, and (like in their previous collaboration) he does a good job of making Stallone look good. Which, along with the fact that Stallone could control him, is probably why he was hired. The movie is based on the novel 'Fair Game', once Stallone had rewrote it (which seems to be a bad habit of his) it bears zero resemblance to the source novel.
Whilst it has a few good lines, most of the dialogue is awful, and it is poorly acted by most of the cast, and the less said about some of the editing the better!! Stallone does what he does best, (although the one man army works well with Rambo, it's laughable here) and looks cool doing it. But this is an average, forgettable 80's flick at best, when it could have been so much more.
Plot In A Paragraph: Cobra (Stallone) a tough cop, who does things his own way, must protect a witness from a murderous gang led by the Night Slasher
This was Sly's attempt at a Dirty Harry type movie/franchise (right down to the opening, outright ripping off Magnum Force's opening) However an out of control ego (Its rumoured none of the supporting cast or crew were allowed to talk to Stallone during filming, insisting on his then wife being the female lead) and an attempt to make more money costs the movie dear.
The original cut over the movie was over 2 hours long. Due to concerns it might not be a hit, the final cut was 84 minutes, thereby increasing the number of screenings per day. Some of the more violent scenes were also cut to get a lower rating. A lot of plot was either removed or sped up while most of the violence and nearly every death was edited or depicted off-screen, resulting in numerous continuity errors and plot holes.
We never find much out about the axe banging cult (a mix of business men in suits and tough bikers who all brandish the same tattoo) or the "New World" that the main villain talks about. What we do get is a lot of montages, with Sly looking tough and moody behind his shades or cool and moody behind his shades. Stallones new wife (Bridgette Neilson) isn't left out either, she gets a solo montage of her modelling various outfits during a photo shoot.
George P Cosmotos (Rambo: First Blood Part 2) was directing Stallone again, and (like in their previous collaboration) he does a good job of making Stallone look good. Which, along with the fact that Stallone could control him, is probably why he was hired. The movie is based on the novel 'Fair Game', once Stallone had rewrote it (which seems to be a bad habit of his) it bears zero resemblance to the source novel.
Whilst it has a few good lines, most of the dialogue is awful, and it is poorly acted by most of the cast, and the less said about some of the editing the better!! Stallone does what he does best, (although the one man army works well with Rambo, it's laughable here) and looks cool doing it. But this is an average, forgettable 80's flick at best, when it could have been so much more.