COBRA (1986) Retrospective/Review 

That pizza cutting scene with the scissors was ICONIC 😄

Really wish we got the director's cut of this movie to see everything that was cut out of it.

Easily one of Stallone's best and most underrated films. Brain Thompson as The Night Slasher is a very ruthless and intimidating villain. Loved the music Angel of the City.

Watching these actors getting old gives me a big hit of sadness. :(

I don't care what anyone says, this movie is AWSOM, one of my favourite Sly films 🍕 ✂️

I was maybe seven years old when I saw Cobra (too young really) and it was pretty much the greatest thing I’d ever experienced. Used to go on the ferry across the channel on holiday every summer and winter and it had a cinema in it, staff couldn’t give a flip so they’d just let me in to watch anything, Porkies, Robocop, Predator, Running Man etc. I’d come back to school and basically explain each movie to my friends… those were the days.

Another great Harper production. Your enthusiasm and attention to detail for essentially rubbish forgotten films is legendary

You did a Masterpiece with this Retrospective!! In Germany they named the Movie as "The City Cobra" and because of that they Re-Released the Schwarzenegger Movie "Raw Deal" and named it "The City Shark" 😂 OMG i love the 80s

Great Video as always, Oliver! COBRA - EASILY one of the Greatest Action Movies of the 80s and my third favourite Sly film after FIRST BLOOD and ROCKY IV. This is absolute apex 80s, action awesomeness. Classic!

I freaking love this film! Thank you Oliver Harper for making this retrospective. I remember the vhs was on the shelf at Tesco and I’d read the back cover every week when I went shopping with my Mom. I was a massive Rocky fan at the time and he got Rocky III and IV on vhs and wanted this next. Lol. My Mom wouldn’t let me get it haha so had to wait to see it on TV.

Every time the Oliver Harper logo comes on at the beginning, it gives me the will to keep going. This is the only channel that truly and honestly makes me feel like a kid again

I've been a subscriber for so long and I love the intros, honestly feels like a trailer but really well done.

Cobra is probably the most underrated 80's action movie.

Wish we could've gotten a director's cut of Cobra.

I love this film. Such a classic feature!!!

That sketch of the night stalker always cracks me up :D Also I always thought Brian Thompson looked a bit like Arnold. Not like his twin brother, more like a distant relative. Definitely similar facial features. I think that's why they picked him for the role, so Sly can in a way kill Arnold on screen, because of their rivalry back in the 80s. I could be wrong though.

Stallone is such an underrated actor! The GOAT!

I used to love when they’d play this on tv and get to see scenes that weren’t on the vhs. And the car chase is so cool, i believe the Cobra 50 Merc was stolen in the late 80’s and recovered only a few years ago.

The intro itself is worth a subscribe and like button. Better than the actual Cobra trailer i guess.Also the bike chase scenes were shot during the day, because the shooting locations were mosquito infested during the night.

This is a really well put together video, thank you so much

I had a double pack dvd that had this and Tango and Cash. It was incredible.

I like the opening scene with the crim riding the kwaka Z1R to the shops

Never seen this but looks amazing.

This is the movie I’ve been waiting for you to review. It’s my favorite of Stallone’s. What a shame and wasted opportunity for this could’ve been a franchise. I’m still holding out hope for the original unedited version to be put the Blu-ray.

love the Cannon intro ..nice

It's a fun film but definitely in Stallone's lower tier of output. Good review as always Oliver. Loving your snippet about the home computer games; it was indeed great on the ZX Spectrum. Such a funny game that was also very playable.

Great review….I was lucky enough to watch Sylvester directing when I snuck onto a movie set in 2002 in Hollywood. He was relentless, that’s for sure! PS at 13:01 the gun is a Finnish 9mm ‘Jatimatic’, pronounced ‘yarti’ (not ‘jatti’)

Yeah, this movie is 80's sleaze, the story and protagonist is ret@rded but I love it for nostalgia. The music, the aviator glasses. Pure vibes. 3:57 - this review was spot on. 19:00 - 😆 I had no idea they made a game for this flick. Thnx Ollie.

The Gosling book was not originally titled "Fair Game"; it was "A Running Duck". Just picture this movie (or the Baldwin/Crawford film) named "A Running Duck".

$25 million? Jeez. Seems like a $5 million dollar budgeted movie.

Great video as always! I saw this as a 13 year old in the theater (I wanted to see Top Gun but was outvoted) and thought it was pretty awesome (or "Awesom"). It's like Commando, perfect entertainment for a 13 year old boy in the mid-80s. Plus Brigitte Nielsen was foxy.

I love ❤️ this review so much , this motion picture was one of the greatest movie of my childhood like Over the top , Rambo 2 and Commamdo ! Cobra is legendary in my memories I was 11 years old

Another great review, Oliver

The movie is just 'okay' but the sound track is awesome! Remember listening to those songs on cassette excessively back in the day.

Watched this by chance a few years ago and LOVED the first half. The cliff it falls off in the second half is huge. Too bad.

Great Review!! 💯

I hear what Stallone is saying about the horror element, it definitely felt that way, but as a kid, when I first watched it, I loved the film more for it.

Stoked to see the Seinfeld reference here!

I’m loving that intro

That alt ending with monte would have been great!

I love the new Cannon inspired logo!

One of my favorite Stallone movies❤

the tone of this film is wild.

Pretty wild that it was compared to Dirty Harry when you consider the villain of that film was in Cobra too. :)

Great Review. This really is the "Dirty Harry" of the 1980s. I would love to have seen this in Beverly Hills Cop. Just imagine a Cobra version of Axel Foley alongside the comedy duo Taggart and Rosewood

8:46 holy sht! If you showed me a picture of him today; I would *never* have guessed that was Thompson!

Pizza and scissors a scene. Up there with Phoebe Cates getting outta the pool in Fast Times in Ridgemont

Hey Oliver, ever thought of reviewing The Super Mario Bros Movie (2023)? It’s one of my favorite movies of this year!

I love this stuff: 22:46

I should get royalties from the show The Goldbergs,the uncle in the show in one episode dressed up as Cobra. Which I did as well soon after seeing this awesome movie in 1986.

I love how the no nonsense cop always has a great physique and a terrible diet!

I enjoy cobra a lot, however I think it could’ve been better if it wasn’t edited down. I hope the footage still exists so that they can do a restored directors cut. Hell Rocky 4 got a new cut recently, I wonder why stallone hasn’t done one for cobra yet.

I remember this film on VHS when it came out. Jeez I think I was 13? Something like that. 😎

As of yesterday, I read the final draft of the screenplay that is close to 20-minutes longer than the actual movie that I have ready to view. From what I read and have briefly looked at of the movie, the biggest problem is that there is way too much on-the-nose dialogue for Stallone and others to blah-blah-blah their way through, to make simple points.

Brings back my childhood 80s cheese As kid of the 80s I had the Cobra toy gun Awesome childhood Miss the 80s and 90s action movies Thank God for John “Fucking” Wick

It's a classic for sure

holy crap! there's no way you'd know Cobra and Beverly Hills Cop came from the same thought unless someone told you. (and someone did. ty.)

This is where the law stops and I start... Sucker! What a line! What a film!!! 🐍

Never even bothered with this movie and I don't think I'd like it anymore, but Bill Simmons and Kyle Brandt did a Rewatchables podcast on Cobra and now we have Oliver doing a retro... I might have to give it another shot.

Deserved a sequel. Would have been interesting to see the character develop in different scenarios. Stallone certainly likes a sequel or two with the other franchises. Rocky, Rambo, Expendables etc

how many movies used Fair Game for ideas? ive heard it several times

During the intro, I thought Cobra was talking about Chicago

This is the first rated R movie I ever saw 😂, I was in the 7th grade and one of my classmates brothers bought us tix. I thought this was the most badass thing ever 😅

Marion Cobretti. If that isn’t one of the most badass character names ever, I don’t know what is…

Please do Tango and Cash retrospective.

“There’s a burglary every 11 seconds.” Stallone fails hard at trying to sound tough in this. He did it way better in First Blood “In town you’re the law, out here it’s me.”

I always thought this movie was a little underrated. Now, I'm not so sure. I'd have to see it again. For me, the best part of the movie was the opening supermarket scene. Grabs the PA, "Hey, scumbag, you're a lousy shot. I don't like lousy shots." "I got a bomb here, man! I'll blow this whole place up!" "Go ahead. I don't shop here." I still use that line today. While it was in the city, it was a darker and over-stylized version of Dirty Harry, which is good. But then it went into the country for the final third. That was strange. I never cared for Bridget Neilsen, though she looked better in Beverly Hills Cop II. And I thought she was a terrible pairing with Sly. Just too tall. The 80's were the golden era of action movies, and this movie is pretty forgettable compared to the likes of Rambo, Predator, Aliens 2, Rocky 3 & 4, Commando, Sudden Impact, Terminator, etc... It is what it is.

As someone who loves Cobra...you have to watch Assy McGee a cartoon from Adult Swim it just so phucking funny!

Is this a re-upload?

David Lynch would've done well with this setting. It would've been grittier wild at heart

You should do John Carpenter's ELVIS & GREMLINS 2 - THE NEW BATCH

Cobra was meant as a Horror and Slasher?!

You're never going to do the 1976 King Kong remake, are you?

Schwarzenegger's films, on the whole, are just better than Stallone's. That's something that got lost in all of the competition between the two in the 80's and 90's. Schwarzenegger just picked better projects and better scripts and knew how to recognize great material. Which is pretty ironic, considering that Stallone WROTE "Rocky", so you'd think he would have been smarter. But I think his ego just got in the way of everything, where Arnold focused more on the actual movies. I can name exactly two great Stallone films: the original "Rocky" and the original "First Blood". There are very few "bad" Schwarzenegger films from the 80's and 90's, apart from maybe "Raw Deal", which isn't so great, but even that has its charms. In fact, I'd have a hard time naming even one. Which isn't to say that Stallone's movies aren't FUN, even if a lot of them are "bad". But there's just a difference in the quality of films each one was putting out. I enjoy watching "Cobra" for just how *ridiculous* it is, but I enjoy watching "The Terminator" because it's fantastic.

Now you're talking !!!

I remember seing Cobra in the thearther and liking it very much. Mostly because if Brian Thompson who in my opinion steals the movie. I rewatched it recently and now i can't even watch 45 min of it. It takes itself waaaay to serious and have zero fun. The story is full of holes and the chracters are boring as fuck. I still liked Brian Thompson though. But it hasn't the same charme or wit or even story as Tango & Cash. But i always enjoy your reviews cause they are so detailed, and i'm a nerd so i love that kinda of stuff

Star trek needs his alien back

This movie was massively misunderstood at its release. There is no deeper meaning or underlying message here it’s just Sly being Sly: killing mfs & blowing shit up while delivering nothing but one liners. It’s fucking amazing! Not everything has to be 2001: A Space Odyssey sometimes a French-Italian-American destroying anything & anyone in his way is enough

Crime is a disease. Stallone is the cure. I like that tagline.

23:03🤣

Now i just want a new Panos Cosmatos movie.

21:16 It's interesting to learn Cobra wasn't that big of a hit in the West. For us, kids growing up beyond the Iron Curtain, it was an integral part of "golden age of VHS" repertoire, together with all the Rambos, Commandos and Predators - and is fondly remembered to this day by people in their 40s.

I get the feeling with Cobra there’s a whole other movie on the cutting room floor. It may not be a masterpiece but I always feel like I’m watching a long trailer for the real movie.

I know it’s not held in the highest regard by most people but I could watch this film ever day and never get tired of it. Also the pizza and scissors thing is incredible.

Underrated gritty classic from the 80s. For some similar, but other very different reasons I love this movie as much as Tango & Cash.

Yes an absolutely underrated Stallone classic!

This movie was so hated back in the 80's. I'm glad it has a cult status nowadays, or at least something close to it. The real gem! Cobra (1986), Nighthawks (1981) and Lock Up (1989) are Stallone's most underrated films from the 80's.

I was a little kid when this movie came out and I was SCARED!! The villain gang was so scary, specially after Cobra's info about the crimes happening in the beginning!!

Here in Sweden, the movie was banned for a long time. The distributor submitted shorter and shorter versions, but it kept getting banned. Finally, a version that was only 65 min long was approved for release in cinemas and on home video. It wasn't until the DVD came out years later that the uncut version became avalible.

The part that I like the most is the supermaket which was really unnerving at the time. In my opinion, the film could have run for another 10 or 20 minutes. In any case, this is a much better film than what we get today, say the FFs.

I wish Cobra and Snake Plissken met for a beer and bashing up session back in the day 🐍🐍

I always greatly enjoy your detailed throwbacks. Most of your reviews are about films I watched as a kid and many of them get me to re-watch the ones I've since forgotten. Thanks for the great content!

I love this movie. Great job as always Oliver.

Your production quality is amazing. Effects, editing, writing, all of it. Cobra is one of my favorites, I was 12 when it came out. It's nice to see a good thorough review on a personal favorite!

“You’re the disease, and I’m the cure” I don’t give a damn. I love this movie. This is how I remember Stallone. He looked, I think his best. The glasses. Awesome.

22:51 😂 I was waiting for that "out of character" moment from you Oliver, and you did not disappoint 🤣🤣🤣

I would love a full soundtrack/score of this!!!! This movie is so good lol!

THANK YOU! Grew up with this movie, being Mexican we were always late to new pop culture course and blessing since i was born in late 90s but grew up with 80s movies and music

Fascinating stuff, sir. Poor Mr Thompson having to buy his own ticket!

Flawed as it might be, I still remember many scenes from this movie, unlike those from many modern action movies.