Cobra: Collector's Edition (1986)

Details: By Loron Hays; 26 January 2019

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Cobra: Collector's Edition - Blu-ray

Marion “Cobra” Cobretti is back on the streets. Wearing his Judas Priest-styled sunglasses, a must for ANY badass in the 1980s, and taking out any number of axe-swinging maniacs, his beat on the street gets a major visual HD upgrade thanks to Shout! Factory’s Collector’s Edition of director George P. Cosmatos’ Cobra.

Start flexing now, friends. Your night just got a whole hell of a lot better thanks to this new 2K scan. Emotionless and all about bringing the pain, even the feminine charms of Brigitte Nielsen can’t get Marion to take his eyes of all the shapes and sounds of the heaving and grunting criminals around him. This city is crawling with them and Stallone must whip them all.

"Cobra delivers a spitfire of a Hollywood gem that B-movie aficionados are STILL digging, man"

And he, being the fascist that he is, will make them pay dearly. PUNISH THEM ALL. Finally, Los Angeles has the murdering hero that it can get behind.

Cobra. You know this movie already and fans of Stallone’s vanity project also know that it kicks major ass as only these homoerotic actioners produced in the 1980s could. Blue Oyster Club? Who needs it when you have these leather-clad psychos running through the night in tight muscle t-shirts and biker gear?! {googleads}

Born out of the angst Stallone felt when he wanted to make Beverly Hills Cop more action-oriented than comedic, Cobra opens with a hostage situation in which the Zombie Squad is called in. The threat? The New World and Cobra, as a member of the Zombie Squad, has no patience for such radical ideas as killing the weak . . . so he kills the criminal. So much for police procedurals!

Soon enough, after getting roasted by his boss and the media, Cobra finds himself chasing after this strange (and strong) group of radicals. Kill, kill, and kill again; that’s the name of this game. The trail of crime, led by the fierce beast that is The Night Slasher (Brian Thompson) leads him right to head to head conflict, but it is first through the tasty looks and business smarts of Ingrid Knudsen (Nielsen) before Cobra even gets a clue as to the extremes of what they are willing to do. Cobra: Collector's Edition - Blu-ray

Panned my critics and loved by fans, Cobra is a movie that has earned its cult classic status. The film, giving the conventions of the time the middle finger, is a fierce rebuttal of all things law and order. It is Dirty Harry on steroids (acknowledging this is the fact that both Reni Santoni, and Andy Robinson are cast in this film) and, as it owes its existence to The Cannon Group and to Stallone (as he wrote the screenplay), it definitely delivers a ‘roided-out message to the masses about not giving two shits about protocols and standards. You gonna break the law?! Well, here’s a knife to the stomach! Happy Death Day, asshole.

The violence is over the top and quite silly (but still cool) and the tropes of the genre are well-worn throughout, still Cobra delivers a spitfire of a Hollywood gem that B-movie aficionados are STILL digging, man. My proof? Shout! Factory’s efforts to give his cool-ass flick an HD polish AND a Collector’s Edition, with brand new interviews from its cast.

Cobra is still bad for your health, pinche, and that makes it so damn good.

4 beers

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MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 87 mins
Director: George P. Cosmatos
Writer: Sylvester Stallone
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Brigitte Nielsen, Reni Santoni
Genre: Action
Tagline: Crime is the disease. Meet the Cure.
Memorable Movie Quote: "Hey dirtbag, you're a lousy shot. I don't like lousy shots. You wasted a kid... for nothing. Now I think it's time to waste you."
Theatrical Distributor: Cannon Film Distributors
Official Site:
Release Date: May 23, 1986
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date: January 22, 2019
Synopsis: Lt. Cobretti (Sylvester Stallone) is a one-man assault team whose laser-mount submachine gun and pearl-handled Colt .45 spit pure crime-stopping venom! Director George P. Cosmatos (Rambo: First Blood Part II, Tombstone) teams up again with Stallone for this thriller pitting Cobretti against a merciless serial killer. The trail leads to not one murderer but also an army of psychos bent on slashing their way to a "New Order" – and killing a witness (Brigitte Nielsen) along the way. Fortunately, her protector is Cobra, a man who delivers vigilante justice like no other!

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Cobra: Collector's Edition - Blu-ray

Blu-ray Details:

Home Video Distributor: Shout Factory
Available on Blu-ray - January 22, 2019
Screen Formats: 1.85:1
Subtitles: English SDH
Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1; English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
Discs: Blu-ray Disc; singled disc
Region Encoding: Locked to Region A

Shout! Factory’s brand new 2K scan of the film’s original elements looks damn crisp! The detail is is damned impressive. Colors are bold, bright, and shadows are thick with lines and deep blacks. The night scenes – and there are a lot of them – are detailed and heavy with edges. The colors are bold enough. Saturation levels are on point and so too is the restored audio, appearing here in a DTS-HD master audio HD track. Presented with a widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio, Cobra has never looked as good as it does here.

Supplements:

Commentary:

Director George P. Cosmatos provides a detailed commentary about his work here and his relationship with Stallone. Fans won’t be disappointed.

Special Features:

Okay, so there is no new interview with Stallone concerning this KICKASS vanity project, but Shout Factory still delivers the goods on the new interviews that are included. Fans get NEW interview with Brian Thompson, a NEW interview with Marco Rodriguez, a NEW interview with Andrew Robinson, a NEW interview with Lee Garlington, and NEW interview with Art LaFLeur. This release also comes with a director’s commentary, a vintage featurette, a still gallery, and a couple of trailers.