Cobra

R

1986

1h 23m

Action

Mystery & Thriller

Crime

Drama

TRAILER

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List

18%

22 Reviews

Tomatometer

43%

25,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Los Angeles policeman Lt. Marion "Cobra" Cobretti (Sylvester Stallone) finds himself at the center of a spate of murders carried out by a secret society called New Order: killers who select "weak" members of society for extermination. As the murder rate rises, Cobra takes model Ingrid (Brigitte Nielsen) into protective custody after she witnesses New Order's leader in action. As Cobra falls for Ingrid, they find shelter in a small town, but must soon fight for survival.

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Critics Consensus

A disengaged Sylvester Stallone plays the titular Cobra with no bite in this leaden action thriller, queasily fixated on wanton carnage and nothing else.

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Dinos K

Classic action 80s movie, greated for direct VHS use and some silly entertainment

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/15/24

Full Review

Blu B

This is almost a poster child for a bad 80's action movie. Stallone feels like he's sleepwalking at times and speaks in one tone with no expressions and isn't good in general. Everyone else is either too over the top like the villians who are almost cartoonish and cannon fodder or super forgettable like the love interest whom I can't even remember her name. The acting just isn't good in general and neither is the cinemaography...good lord. This alternates between over the top generic action, copying camera angles or scenes from other movies like Bullitt and The Shining, obnoxious camerawork, and everything just has a cheap sleazy feel to it like a John Carpenter movie just without the atmosphere and mood to go with it. The editing isn't good either. This is clearly trying to be a exploitation flick like Death Wish and a Stallone action movie but the story is so generic and unrefined it can't really make the two work together to form anything special because it's too over the top at times and has some weird cuts every now and than that make you unintentionally laugh. It feels like at times when he's hunting the criminals down stuff just happens at times and it can't form a sharp story. This is literally every generic action/exploitation flick you've ever seen from the era. It has nothing original except Stallone. It really feels like at times your watching a John Carpenter Horror movie at times out of nowhere also. The pacing is ok enough but a mess overall though because this alternates between being over the top ridiculous, laughably bad, and generically boring. I really can't recommend this to anyone becuase its too boring half the time to be so bad its good.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/08/24

Full Review

george h

A decent, albeit violent action movie that really deserved its own mini franchise. Stallone and action fans will love this. It also has enough other actors you will recognise. I never understood the hate. Its good low level exciting entertainment.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

10/14/23

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Daniel M

Great 80's action film that I didn't remember watching it as a child and loved it today, Stallone was great and the story was basic and simple yet fun and entertaining.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

09/29/23

Full Review

DanTheMan 2

A Stallone vanity project from the magnificent house of Cannon, Cobra may be confused but it's got spirit. An exercise in pure unchecked and misplaced testosterone run amuck... that it exerts strange but undeniable fascination. Sleek, overly violent, unapologetically self-seriousness, a blisteringly paced and genuinely exciting police vigilante thriller, Cobra is anything if not fun. It benefits from Stallone's rather droll, often crossing the border to primaeval, line delivery of the rather ridiculously plotted script (granted it was edited down from a 2-hour rough cut which explains a lot). The signature look of shades, toothpick, leather and laser-sighted submachine gun still elicit that feeling of badassery even today. Brian Thompson's villain is truly terrifying and the soundtrack is truly one of all time. Though Stallone's attempts at humour land with the force of an anvil, there are enough unintentional guffaws to make up for it, Cobra is goofy action schlock at its best.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

09/14/23

Full Review

Parker D

This has got to be one of the most critically underrated mainstream action films of the 90s along with invasion USA that deserves more critical praise than given especially retroactively it has well shot and filmed action set pieces and shootouts and the acting from Stallone is stellar it's baffling how this got trashing from critics especially when it was first released this is how an action movie is supposed to be made and is better than most action films like this generic ones and the direct to dvd films released nowadays it's a slickly made vigilante thriller with an interesting premise and is very entertaining to the core so what if some especially critics might complain if it doesn't have too much story or if they don't like seeing alot of violence but that's the whole point in movies like this the action is flawless and it even has one of the greatest car chase scenes ever the villain aka night slasher is a memorable antagonist and I like the scene of how stallone's cobra defeats him it's just hilarious and good for a lot of laughs the movies poster looks a lot like the terminator and it feels like it's directed by James Cameron it would be one of his most underrated films that critics gave bad reviews. It audiences loved similar to Spielberg with hook. Critics got this film wrong and I hope in the near future they revise their ratings maybe now they like it better than when they first saw it in 1986 it's a great action flick and one of the best of the 80s action flicks if one of the ones that didn't get the critical acclaim like others did this is still a well directed one and should at least be highly acclaimed by the fans especially ones who love action flicks and I definitely would say this is a must see for action fans 9/10

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

09/15/23

Full Review

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George P. Cosmatos

Director

Sylvester Stallone

Lieutenant Marion "Cobra" Cobretti

Brigitte Nielsen

Ingrid

Reni Santoni

Sergeant Gonzales

Andrew Robinson

Detective Monte

Lee Garlington

Nancy Stalk

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Cobra: Trailer 1

1:27

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Paul Attanasio

Washington Post

The movie is such a textbook example of an exploitation cop movie that you can outline it like a schoolboy for easy reference...

Jan 3, 2018

Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

Cobra is a sleek, extremely violent and exciting police thriller.

May 6, 2008

Full Review

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

It's fast-paced and full of gaudy action, yet it's thoroughly unsatisfying, largely because it's so lazy.

May 6, 2008

Full Review

Peter Sobczynski

The Spool

It is such an exercise in pure unchecked and misplaced testosterone run amuck... that it exerts strange but undeniable fascination.

May 24, 2021

Full Review

David Bax

Battleship Pretension

Cobra is the dumbest, most indulgent possible iteration of the "America has become a cesspool of crime" subgenre popularized by Death Wish and executed with an actual brain by RoboCop.

Feb 7, 2019

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Sly's attempts at humor land with the force of an anvil, although there are enough unintentional guffaws to make up for it.

Rated: 1.5/4

Feb 5, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

Los Angeles policeman Lt. Marion "Cobra" Cobretti (Sylvester Stallone) finds himself at the center of a spate of murders carried out by a secret society called New Order: killers who select "weak" members of society for extermination. As the murder rate rises, Cobra takes model Ingrid (Brigitte Nielsen) into protective custody after she witnesses New Order's leader in action. As Cobra falls for Ingrid, they find shelter in a small town, but must soon fight for survival.

Director: George P. Cosmatos
Screenwriter: Sylvester Stallone
Production Co: Warner Brothers/Seven Arts, The Cannon Group
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Mystery & Thriller, Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 1, 2008
Box Office (Gross USA): $47.5M
Runtime: 1h 23m
Sound Mix: Surround, Stereo

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