BADNESS RATING:
RELEASED: 1986
DIRECTED BY: George P. Cosmatos
The movie tag line says it all “Crime is a disease. Meet the Cure.”
Sylvester Stalone stars as Lieutenant “Cobra” Cobretti. He is a rebel with a cool car, leather jacket, big gun, bad attitude, shades, and a toothpick (for chew’n).
In the opening scene a psycho is shooting up a grocery store. After several customers are killed, the call goes out to Cobra. This is a drastic and contraversial move since Cobra is known for his shoot first ways.
Cobra is forever forced to defend himself and is then scolded for his use of deadly force, or he offers up insights into the investigation and is dismissed due to lack of evidence. Basically the higher ups with their “red tape” and “rules” are always wrong. Meanwhile the street smart Cobra continuously uses his “insticts” and badass-ness to save the day.
The takeaway of this movie is that criminal rehabilitation is a joke and crazy cults of weapon clinking psychos are a reality. The really real takeaway is a theme song so amazing that you’ll sing it for a week and then wish you could get back the last 7 days.