King Cobra (1999)

I'd like to start this off by saying that it's my personal belief snake-based movies are one of the lowest forms of sci-fi/thriller genre movies ever. "King Cobra" is absolutely no better than any other snake movie I've seen. In many ways, it's even worse.. I guess we should start with the acting. A possible savior in lesser-known, low-budget clichés. Well to skip an overly long summary, it was pretty mediocre on all accounts. Most characters have little actual dialog, little personality, and very little background. They're all extremely bland, and have little to separate themselves from each other. Pat Morita is probably the best in the movie, which isn't really saying much.Next up would be the effects. Very crappy CGI is notable from almost the start. Most of the snake effects are slow and unrealistic considering they're always mentioning how "fast and evasive" it's supposed to be. It comes off as weird when you see the actual 'snake' have the reflexes and alertness of a retarded turtle. Last would be the plot. Which you can't expect a whole lot from in a giant terrorizing snake movie. However, whatever little was there was not implemented well whatsoever. The whole "hybrid" thing is barely mentioned even though it's the main trait of the snake.I'd be really surprised if this wasn't commonly found in a bargain bin, or a pawn shop somewhere. It's really that bad. 1/10, although should be lower for the wasted money spent on it..

I saw this movie after reading plenty of the negative reviews on IMDb so I had low expectations.The good; -this film had the scariest and most realistic snake of any snake movie I've seen including the Anaconda and Python movies. I've seen people slam it because the snake didn't look real enough but even the shark in Jaws looked rather fake (not claiming this is equal to Jaws or even in the same class but people need to cut films some slack and realize that not everything is 100% factual). -a fairly good musical score -scares: a few scenes where the snake pops out of nowhere to attack really sends chills up your spine -Pat Moriata: I have never seen the Karate Kid so I have no bias but he definitely played a cool characterthe bad: -several Jaws rip off scenes; the scare at the beginning (though to be fair all giant predator movies seem to have attacks at the start) except done inferiorly due to breaking the rule of showing the creature on the first attack. The blatant ripoff line "we're going to need bigger guns" and the plot line of a money hungry mayor not wanting to close down an event to protect the civilians from the monster and eventual hiring of an expert of the monster in question -some of the death scenes were long and drawn out and predictable. The director did a good job with a false scare early in the movie with using the attacker as the camera peering up to a little girl only to realize that it was her brother sneaking up on her with a rubber snake (though this may be a copy of the Jaws scene with the pranksters swimming with a a shark fin on to scare the people on the beach), we then get a long drawn out stalking of the King Cobra on the little boy. It would have worked much better to have the snake pop out of nowhere. -we end with an unresolved cliffhanger; Seth is still alive but likely no sequelFinal grade: 7 out of 10

King Cobra is a very good film that has a good cast which includes Pat Morita, Scott Hillenbrand, Casey Fallo, Hoyt Axton, Joseph Ruskin, Courtney Gains, Eric Lawson, Arell Blanton, Jerry Kernion, Michael Leopard, Erik Estrada, Nick Jameson, and Cedric Duplechain. The acting by all of these actors is very good. The thrills is really good and some of it is surprising. The movie is filmed very good. The music is good. The film is quite interesting and the movie really keeps you going until the end. This is a very good and thrilling film. If you like Pat Morita, Scott Hillenbrand, Casey Fallo, Hoyt Axton, Joseph Ruskin, Courtney Gains, Eric Estrada, the rest of the cast in the film, Giant Snake Films, Horror, Sci-Fi, Thrillers, Dramas, and interesting films then I strongly recommend you to see this film today!

30 feet of pure terror! So proclaims the jacket ad. The monster snake is actually a Cobra-Rattlesnake creation, the result of genetic tinkering. After the obligatory lab explosion, it escapes and settles down in a small rural town to make life hectic for the hicks, who call in snake-expert Pat Morita (from Happy Days and the "Karate Kid" movies). This flic is rather low-budget and must have went direct-to-video. I'm not really sure how much of it is unintentionally funny or tongue-in-cheek (especially the climactic battle between Morita & the Monster, who, by the way, is named Seth). But, it comes off as entertaining in a goofy, lopsided manner, hearkening back to all those monster flics of the 1950s (and the 1970s, come to think of it). There weren't that many giant snake movies back then, however, instead mostly giant insects and an occasional lizard. Then we got "Anaconda" in '97 and the rest is history - the Sci-Fi Channel has a sub genre load of these by now. The snake-monster itself in "King Cobra" is fairly well executed, showing that even with a very low budget, FX can be done in a reasonable fashion these days. Lucky us.