The Black Cobra (1987)

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.

Fred Williamson rocks! I will admit that the cinematography is horrible, the acting is way below sub-par, the direction is beyond weak but this movie just rocks! Some movies can be "so bad that they're good" and this film is honestly a fine description of that phrase. Yeah the villains are awful dorky in their little bike-suits and dirt-bikes they haul around in. Williamson is solid gold as Detective Robert Malone in this flick, he's bad, he's mean, he's had a rough past that he'd love to forget and he gets to protect a photographer that took some incriminating photos of a biker gang (The Black Cobras) committing a crime that unfortunately for her and Malone didn't develop properly, soo (you guessed it!) that leaves the face of the culprit(s) as unknown. So Malone's gotta get out on the streets and do it his own way , this film should've been called "Dirty Robert", Williamson's character is practically a mirror image to Clint Eastwood's famous "Dirty" Harry Callahan character. I suggest this movie to everybody that breathes on the face of this earth. If you are having an evening alone (or with friends) and you wanna watch a movie that doesn't ask much of the viewer and you wanna see some butts get kicked....Then my friends, The Black Cobra is for You! 10 out of 10 stars because I'm sure nobody else likes this movie as much as I do!

I love B movies and I enjoyed Black Cobra. I wanted something to watch one rainy afternoon (I noticed that another reviewer watched it like that too) and so I gave this a look and I'm glad I did. Black Cobra is low low budget flick that provided enjoyable escapism for 90 minutes and kept me entertained. This is the type of film that you really have to accept on it's own terms or just leave alone. Ripping it apart would be easy but all the things that one could criticize are the exact same things that make Black Cobra the entertaining low budget flick that it is. One last thing: I agree with the other reviews that say the music in this flick sounds like it should be from a zombie movie. The Hammer should fight zombies in Black Cobra 4. I HOPE SOMEBODY READS THIS AND MAKES IT HAPPEN.

Cobra Nero(aka Black Cobra)has average music more suited to Italian zombie flicks than an action film and more than it's share of bad acting,dumb bad guys and sweaty close ups yet it has some well shot action sequences while Mr Williamson is on screen and some well done gore effects.The climax is a bit longwinded but it still left me wanting to watch more.Luckily there have been a couple of sequels since so we can all look forward to seeing Fred Williamson playing Malone again.