Cobra: Limited Edition - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Cobra: Limited Edition



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
I know not everyone is going to agree with me, but I find Cobra to be one of the most glorious guilty pleasure action flicks of the 80s. It’s got Stallone in his prime, Brian Thompson as a lunatic “New world order!” type of villain (complete with him sharpening a giant knife while staring maniacally into the camera), it’s got hot girls, Stallone shooting everyone he sees with his pearl-handled 1911, and all sorts of just AWFUL one-liners. Yup, it’s the 80s, it’s got muscles, and it’s got babes and guns. What more could a teenage boy growing up in those days want? Yeah, I know, it’s really not a GREAT movie by objective standards, but it’s so hilariously fun that you can’t help but love it for the sheer Velveeta and Gouda levels of cheese being shown on screen. I'm that guy who owned the DVD, Warner's crummy Blu-ray, Shout! Studios good Blu-ray, and now Arrow's 4K disc. And each disc keeps getting upgraded to the point where I feel we're at "peak" Cobra wonderfulness with this 4K UHD Disc.

Lt. Cobretti (The Cobra) is a one-man wrecking crew, complete with pearl-handled 1911s, a laser-sighted machine gun, and a penchant for blowing bad guys away instead of talking to them. Back in the 1980s, crime was running rampant, and Cobra is the only cure. Marion Cobretti (Sylvester Stallone) does the jobs that no one else wants to do. Picks up the sickos and scumbags that most cops are too nervous to confront, and drinks beer while driving a classic truck. However, his skills are put to the test when he is pitted against a crazed serial killer (Brian Thompson) who is looking to bring about a new world order of criminality, and will stop at nothing to make his delusions come true. Cobretti’s big break comes when a witness named Ingrid (Brigitte Nielsen) is the killer’s next target, which means the tough-as-nails detective has to keep her safe and lure out the killer by using her as bait.

There’s not a mainstream '80s movie out there that is as gloriously over the top as Cobra is. It’s just maniacally exaggerated to the extreme, with rough and tumble cops with the power of a full assault team, crazed killers who just reek of mental instability, and weapons that are more menacing and visceral than they are in other movies. We get long, lingering shots of machine guns as they’re firing, with quick cutaways to the villains' faces as they get blasted into smithereens. Then there’s the raging soundtrack that just pulses and pounds away at the listener from every angle. The entire movie is about as excessive and over the top as Robocop is, just with a gritty detective story rather than a satirical take on modern (at least at the time) social foibles.

The excessive nature of the film runs over into the acting as well, with Stallone playing Cobretti as cool and collected as he possibly can. The man is next to invincible, and Stallone chews up the scenery like it’s candy. He’s got a snarl and sneer on his face, can one hand weapons like a pro, and just exudes that cheesy disgust that 1980s cop films liked to place on their heroes’ personalities. It’s utterly narcissistic, and utterly fun at the same time. No matter how many times I watch Cobra, I can’t help but get involved with the '80s cheese and sheer insanity of it all. It’s also fun to see Stallone and his then-wife Brigitte Nielsen together on the screen (and it wouldn’t be their only collaboration), but also to see the ultra-violence just ooze from every pore. Cobra may not be the best of the best for 80s films, but it’s a delicious bit of 80s guilty pleasure and one of my absolute favorite action films of that era.




Rating:

Rated R By the MPAA




Video:

My Shout! Studios Blu-ray has been the gold standard for how Cobra looks on home video, but Arrow has always been a cut above the rest in terms of their in-house remasters, so I had high hopes for this one. Luckily, those hopes were not dashed as the results are nothing short of amazing considering the budget of the film and how it has looked on previous releases.

Presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, the new Arrow remaster was restored and taken from the 35mm OCN at 4K, using Warner Bros MPI productions to do the heavy lifting, with the end QC being done by famed Pixelogic. And wowza, I honestly didn’t expect the film to look this good. Shout!’s Blu-ray always handily outclassed the mediocre Warner Bro’s release, but this is another level. The film has some unique issues from the filming style and the low budget, but overall, this is quite the looker. The opening scene in the supermarket is a bit washed out and sorta soft, but it has always looked that way in every release I’ve ever seen. However, once we get out of there, the image sharpness and clarity pick up big time. Facial tones are a bit warm and ruddy, but fine details are all there in spades. Check out the scene where Cobra and Ingrid are driving out of town for the first time. You can literally see Stallone’s eyes moving behind his glasses, as well as the reflection off his classic car showing actual imperfections in the paint job. There’s some softness in some panning shots, but that appears to be camera-related, as I detected no noticeable drop in bitrate or increase in artifacting whatsoever. The Dolby Vision doesn’t make this film really “pop” considering it’s a grungy 80s film with a nice thick layer of grain (which doesn’t clump or freeze at all, and is very unobtrusive), but it adds some depth to the red spectrum (ketchup on fries, blood spilling on clothing) and that fight in the foundry near the end shows the benefits with the increased black levels. Overall, this is a great upgrade that is well worth the price.





Audio:

Arrow has not only provided the 5.1 and 2.0 tracks that we had with the Shout! Release, but also a 4.0 DTS-HD MA track as well (which is the original theatrical mixing if I remember correctly, but don’t quote me on it). The 2.0 is just a downmixed 4.0 track (sounds identical to the 4.0 mix except for the lack of surrounds), so we’ll ignore that one and focus on the surround tracks. I can’t be certain, but I don’t think the 5.1 mix is the same one as the Warner/Shout! Studios release, as it sounds, a bit cleaner and clearer than I remember. Fidelity is quite strong, with a nice, wide dynamic range for the action sequences. One little weird quirk in the two mixes is that they have slightly different midranges and low-end qualities to them. The 4.0 track seems to have a boosted midrange, with heavier midbass and thicker midrange. But the 5.1 track has more low-end bass and a slightly more balanced midrange. Both sound excellent, but the bass on both mixes is not exactly earth-shattering (but to be fair, it never has on any home video release I’ve ever heard, so I’m assuming that it’s how they did it back in the 80s). All in all, this is a solid sounding set of audio tracks, and the 4.0 addition is very much welcome for purists.






Extras:

• Commentaries
-- Critics Kim Newman & Nick De Semlyen
-- Critics Josh Nelson & Martyn Pedler
-- Director George Pan Cosmatos
• TV Version
• White Line Nightmare
• Dark Glasses, Violence & Robots
• Slashing the Night Away
• Stalking and Slashing
• Meet the Disease
• Feel the Heat
• Double Crossed
• A Work of Art
• The Making of Cobra
• Teaser Trailer
• Theatrical Trailer
• Image Gallery

Final Score: ​

Cobra is a glorious bit of narcissistic 80s cheese, with Stallone writing and starring in this explosive flick. His ego is all over the front page, but it’s so fun that you can’t help grinning from ear to ear while the “bad boy cop” guns his way through scumbags like they’re paper mache (even though he would have been fired on the spot for most of his antics, unlike how most 80s films seem to portray these bad boy heroes), and all the while getting the girl in the end. I know it’s not his greatest works, or one of the 80s greatest films, but I adore Cobra beyond belief as it is one of the most FUN pieces of 80s trash out there. Arrow's upgrade from Shout!'s Blu-ray Collector's Edition is a very VERY solid uptick in quality, with all the extras from said Shout! Factory disc, and then some welcome additions as well. Highly Recommended.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Brian Thompson, Brigitte Nielsen, Reni Santoni, Andrew Robinson, John Herzfeld, Lee Garlington, Art LaFleur
Directed by: George P. Cosmatos
Written by: Sylvester Stallone (Screenplay), Paula Gosling (Novel)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English DTS-HD MA 4.0, English DTS-HD MA 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH
Studio: Arrow
Rated: R
Runtime: 87 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: July 22nd, 2025

Recommendation: Highly Recommended