Cobra

This movie is the disease - my review is the cure...

After a string of blockbuster hits with Rocky and Rambo, Stallone once again teams up with his Rambo II director George Cosmatos to hopefully create a new hero, Cobra - or as he's known to his close friends, Marion Cobretti (Stallone).

It seems there is a serial killer on the loose who has already killed 16 females. His latest victim though (Brigitte Nielsen), survives her attack. She is now the sole target of this psycho (Brian Thompson, The X-Files) and it's up to Cobra to protect her and kill the bad guys. The only problem is that it's not just one serial killer, it's a cult of psychos preaching a "new order" on this world.

Can Cobra save the day, or will he reason with these killers and try to unravel the source of their troubled lives? Just point the gun and shoot...

Ranging from washed out to fairly good, this transfer is very inconsistent throughout the movie. In the first few scenes, black level is non-existent and the image appears very faded. There is alot of noise in the image and the print used is not one of the better ones that may have been available, on short notice I assume.

In some later scenes, particularly towards the end in the daylight shots, everything is nice and clean and evenly saturated. Black level and shadow detail is good, but not great, and there's even some semblance of DVD quality, only for a short while though.

I'm a little undecided about the sharpness levels and detail present in the film. Even though the film appears washed out at times, there still seems to be a fair amount of detail in the picture. It's just not even across the board.

The aspect ratio is set at 1.85:1 and is anamorphically enhanced. I witnessed no artefacting during the movie, although there is a little colour bleeding when we are watching the fight on Cobra's balcony near the Pepsi neon sign. At least we know who fronted some cash for this movie.

Dolby Digital 5.1? I think not. The soundtrack is dated and you can hear it almost immeadiately. Effects and ADR work is cheap and sloppy. Dialogue is mostly clear when Stallone's mouth actually moves, rather than the usual mumbles.

The front soundstage doesn't exhibit much channel separation and the use of surrounds is pretty limited. These '80s style gunshots and explosions just don't have that professionalism about them.

Nada, you have to supply the beer and chips yourself.

This is good value if you want to see Sly act with a seven foot bleached Amazonian that he caught with another woman in his bed (or so I hear).

The DVD harks back to the early days when they were mastered on Commodore 64s. Bare bones, very average picture and sound and a stunningly dated film don't add up to much.