Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Loui Blair It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

BA_Harrison Fred Williamson stars as Robert Malone, a 'shoot first, ask questions later'-style New York cop who is assigned to protect beautiful fashion photographer Elys Trumbo (played by the lovely Eva Grimaldi) after she witnesses the murder of a neighbour by a camp biker gang who wear matching studded leather blouson jackets and cheap mirrored sunglasses.I watched The Black Cobra knowing absolutely nothing about the movie, but given the star of the film and its title, I had assumed that it was a 70s blaxploitation movie that would entertain me with its jive-talking' tough guys, big 'fros, funky attire, sexy mamas, and gritty action. As it happens, it's a cheap Italian cop thriller from the following decade, and it bored me to tears with its dreary plot, lacklustre direction, weak acting, distinct lack of 'fros, and shocking late-'80s fashion.Ripping off both Eastwood's Dirty Harry movies and Stallone's Cobra, The Black Cobra hasn't got an original bone in its body, but director Stelvio Massi doesn't even make up for his blatant plagiarism by being outrageously violent, over-the-top in terms of action, or even plain trashy. His film is just cheap and boring. There are dull shootouts and crappy car chase scenes, Williamson looks out of shape and wears a nasty sweater and jacket, and even though the film is supposed to be set in New York, it clearly isn't, stock footage of the Brooklyn Bridge doing little to convince otherwise.The end of the film is particularly asinine, its dumb villain somehow surviving a knife in the back to return for one more go at killing Elys and Malone, giving Williamson the opportunity to do a very lame version of Dirty Harry's famous quote 'you've gotta ask yourself one question…'. I can tell you who's lucky, Fred… any punk who manages to avoid watching this garbage.

georgeszaslavsky I have watched black cobra for the first time in 1987 on TV, and I re watched it not so long ago on DVD. Yes it contains a lot of grim scenes with free violence and blood. But the main thing here is the story of one cop, Malone who decides to make justice himself by killing the whole mob of bikers who kills people randomly.The acting from the bandit leader is very good as the bad guy and the dialog even not at its highest peak is funny. The scene where Malone frees the hostages in the pool by killing the suspects and the scene where he shoots a scum group member in the hospital were awesome. A good flick to watch the week end.I give it 6 out of 10.

Coventry I purchased "Black Cobra", as well as two of its sequels, in a DVD box set called "Urban Cinema Action", but this franchise really doesn't qualify as Blaxploitation. This is a quick Italian produced cash-in on the Sylvester Stallone action vehicle "Cobra", and I have to say these Italians were becoming more and more shameless. "Black Cobra" came out just one year after the Stallone flick and they just wantonly copied the name and added the prefix "Black" because, well, Fred Williamson is a black guy. His titular character is also a completely unorthodox, indifferent and practically silent copper who goes at war against the members of a psychopathic motorcycle gang. Is that enough similarities for you? Fred Williamson immediately demonstrates that his character, Detective Robert Malone, isn't the type of police officer you want to mess with. He walks into a public pool where's a hostage situation going on. After calmly listening to the kidnappers' demands, Malone simply replies with: "No way, pal" and blows all three of them away. See, that's how B-movie cops negotiate! There's a psychopathic motorcycle gang at large in Chicago, led by a beefcake bloke with a golden tooth and a fetish for putting on and off his sunglasses. He looks a tad bit like Arnold Schwarzenegger in "The Terminator" when he does that. Anyway, they are mean gangsters that run over surfers with a jeep and kill women in their own houses. Eva Grimaldi plays a gorgeous photographer who witnessed them murdering a neighbor and hold photographic evidence. Malone is burdened with the task of safeguarding her from assassination attempts that will unquestionably follow. I was really hoping for "Black Cobra" to be a wildly outrageous, excessively violent and gratuitously sleazy exploitation flick, but the sad truth is that the film is quite boring and slow-moving. The action footage is tame and poorly filmed and there aren't any remarkable moments at all. Perhaps the DVD treatment is to blame for this, but most of the film was too dark to even see what was going on and the sound quality is horrendous. The theme song is a rip-off of something I definitely heard before but can't place at the moment. Fred Williamson really seems to have troubles keeping awake and gives one of his least interested performances ever. Throughout the whole film he wears the same damn gray sweater, which makes him look like a grandfather.Trivia note: there's a strong possibility that Quentin Tarantino also saw and liked this movie. At a certain point in the film, Fred Williamson says to his superior: "That's a matter of opinion and I don't give a damn about yours". This exact same line is spoken by George Clooney in Tarantino's script for "From Dusk Till Dawn"; which also stars Fred Williamson in a supportive role.

dbborroughs Fred Williamson starred as Detective Robert Malone in a series of four Italian crime films. They are all testosterone films that ultimately defy logic and test an audience's patience to endure dumb plots and poorly executed action sequences. Williamson is a good actor but his ability to pick a project is poor. Actually I think his ability to pick up is quite good since he's constantly working.The first in the series is essentially a really poor retread of the Sylvester Stallone film Cobra. In it Malone must protect a photographer from a gang that is murdering and raping at will. Its an odd mixing of American establishing shots with Italian interiors and a cast that has a decided European look to them. You never believe any of it. I'm hard pressed to wonder which of the films is worse, this or the original Cobra. I'm leaning just a bit toward this since the original is funnier for all the wrong reasons. This film is also funny for all the wrong reasons, but Williamson is less serious and it takes the edge off some of the hilarity. I can't really recommend this even to bad movie lovers since its pretty awful