Exploiting the fear of crime as shamelessly (and cartoonishly) as Rambo: First Blood Part II exploited concerns about American POWs, Sylvester Stallone once again proves his patriotism by annihilating everything in sight. Fortunately, Cobras bad guys are easy to spot: theyre a sweaty, humourless bunch of over-actors who, in between banging axes together in a warehouse, talk about the way of the new world. All judges and suit-and-tie police Captains want to do is protect the rights of these creeps, who go free on a technicality and commit the same offence again seventy-two hours later. Thats why we need cops like Marion Cobra Cobretti, a loner who disobeys the rules and gets the job done. Where the law stops.he begins. His colleagues wear suits, but Cobra prefers jeans, designer shirts, sunglasses and a matchstick that occupies a corner of his mouth for the entire movie. Whenever he caps a bad guy, he either twirls his weapon or pulls a cool firing stance, just like Robocop. He says stuff like, I dont deal with psychos, I put em away. He tells one creep, Youre the disease, Im the cure. Thank God hes on our side.
Ian Watson is the author of 'Midnight Movie Madness', a 600+ page guide to "bad" movies from 'Reefer Madness' to 'Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead.'
