Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

COBRA

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Horace Cordier
    Senior Member

  • Cobra


    Released by: Warner France Blu-Ray
    Released on: 2/2/2011
    Director: George P. Cosmatos
    Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Brigitte Nielson, Reni Santoni
    Year: 1986

    The Movie:

    "Le crime est un poison. Voici l'antidote."

    COBRA, coming smack-bang in the middle of the action flick crazed 80's has always been a faintly ridiculous film. This is essentially Stallone's “Clint Eastwood/DIRTY HARRY” penis-envy film. With Reni Santoni playing his partner (named Gonzalez - just like in Eastwood's iconic 1971 classic) and the great Andy Robinson as Cobra's duplicitous stick-up-the-butt superior officer, Stallone was clearly exploiting a couple of Eastwood's moves. The casting of Robinson is particularly clever - the actor has a sly blast playing a “by the book” jerk more concerned with politics than putting away dirtbags.

    The plot is almost non-existent. Crazed thugs who resemble knuckle-dragging ugly cousins of Arnold Schwarzenegger, intent on creating a “new world” go on a senseless rape and murder fiesta in Los Angeles. This is all simply an excuse for Stallone's Marion 'Cobra' Cobretti to go on a rampage after the gang decides to use all of their resources to hunt down and kill a hot fashion model (a very hot pre-train wreck Brigitte Nielsen) who has witnessed the gang committing a murder.

    COBRA manages to be both utterly absurd and thoroughly entertaining. Stallone, in his skin-tight jeans, fingerless gloves and sporting both cool shades AND a toothpick is an 80's bad ass fashion icon. Plenty of snappy one liners and some stellar action sequences involving both the very cool 50's car Cobra drives and all manner of gunplay complete the picture. In many ways COBRA is the 80's action genre distilled to almost zen-like simplicity. Babes, guns, one-liners and “stuff that blows up good” mixed with a hilarious dose of fascist right-wing ideology are brewed to perfection here. The clichés are all here too: sleazy media guys, politically motivated two faced police bosses, subhuman baddies and a hot chick in distress. The climax, involving both a steel mill/iron forge AND exotic bladed weapons is a bit of a minor masterpiece. And Stallone taking out a crew of bikers in a small town is almost as over the top as the final reel of DEATH WISH 3.

    I call COBRA essential.

    Video/Audio/Extras:

    Warner France delivers COBRA to Blu-ray in a decent upgrade. The VC-1 encode, 1080P 1:85:1 transfer increases detail in the image without going overboard in the DNR department. Extensive remastering does not appear to have been done but the colors have more “pop” and it is a definite improvement over the less-than-excellent dvd. Film grain is evident and appears natural. The DTS-HD Master Audio lossless 5.1 track sounds excellent and robust and is well balanced.

    Extras are the same as the USA DVD: film trailer, interesting commentary with director George Cosmatos (it's a relaxed track with a few strange tangents but worthwhile with some interesting information) and a short vintage making-of documentary. The Doc is particularly fascinating because Stallone seems to be saying that the film is making a statement on the criminal justice system. I have a feeling that today some of this would make Stallone cringe. The extras are not in HD however and in the case of the documentary this is some particularly brutal video quality. Haloing, jagged images and just all around ugly describes this image on a good HD set. Its watchable - but barely.

    Both the film and the extras were playable on my PS3 so those wanting to scoop this one up should be aware that they DO NOT need a modified player. It is most easily obtainable by heading on over to Amazon France. There are no PAL/NTSC or region locking issues.

    Click on the images below for full size screen caps!











    • VinceP
      #3
      VinceP
      yabba man
      VinceP commented
      Editing a comment
      Don't forget this will have a US release in August.

    • Ian Jane
      #4
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      Ian Jane commented
      Editing a comment
      Was that actually confirmed anywhere? I don't doubt it's coming (it makes sense, and it'll probably be the same disc contents) but can't find any info on it.

    • Horace Cordier
      #5
      Horace Cordier
      Senior Member
      Horace Cordier commented
      Editing a comment
      Originally posted by Ian Jane
      Was that actually confirmed anywhere? I don't doubt it's coming (it makes sense, and it'll probably be the same disc contents) but can't find any info on it.

      http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=6239
    Posting comments is disabled.

Latest Articles

Collapse

  • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Severin Films
    Released on: April 30th, 2024.
    Director: Lee Frost
    Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
    Year: 1969
    Purchase From Amazon

    Hot Spur – Movie Review:

    Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
    ...
    03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
  • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Mondo Macabro
    Released on: April 9th, 2024.
    Director: Max Pecas
    Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
    Year: 1985
    Purchase From Amazon

    Death Squad – Movie Review:

    Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
    ...
    03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
  • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Quality X
    Released on: February 28th, 2024.
    Director: Chuck Vincent
    Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
    Year: 1982
    Purchase From Amazon

    Roommates – Movie Review:

    Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
  • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Blue Underground
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Jess Franco
    Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
    Year: 1970
    Purchase From Amazon

    Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

    Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
  • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Saul Bass
    Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
    Year: 1974
    Purchase From Amazon

    Phase IV – Movie Review:

    Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
    ...
    03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
  • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
    Ian Jane
    Administrator
    by Ian Jane


    Released by: Radiance Films
    Released on: March 26th, 2024.
    Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
    Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
    Year: 1969-1972
    Purchase From Amazon

    The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

    Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
    ...
    03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
Working...
X