Black Cobra

12-01-2005 I just finished watching "Black Cobra" for the second time. The first time I watched it was four years ago when a friend had taped it off the air on a blank video cassette. I only saw the last half of the movie then...but I really liked it.

While it is clearly not in the genre of Eastwood's "Magnum Force" or "Dirty Harry" and probably is not as good as either Willis' "Die Hard" or Gibson's "Lethal Weapon", the film is still pretty good. The writing is not great but the "street action" carries the film well. Marian Cobretti and Martin Riggs could have learned some useful things. Mr. Williamson is good. Like Cobretti and Riggs, our Fred has "style".

I happen to like Fred Williamson, the actor. I liked him in "Joshua" and paid fulI price for the video cassette. In my mind, you don't get a lot better than " The Snake scene" in "Joshua" or the final "You're yella" scene with Karl Malden, in "Nevada Smith". Both are great movies. Williamson is good. I'd like to see more of his work...in conjunction with good screen play writing.

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.

When I popped "The Black Cobra" into the DVD player, I was in the mood for some undemanding, mindless entertainment, nothing more. Unfortunately, this film cannot even fulfill those expectations. It is overwhelmingly cheap - much of it appears to be set in and around abandoned warehouses - and almost completely uninspired. I bought the entire "Black Cobra Collection" online for 3 English pounds, which means a pound a film, but if the other two entries are of the same quality, and if the other two transfers are of the same quality (well-below-VHS-level picture, often inaudible audio), then maybe the buyers should be getting payed instead! Fred Williamson is always cool, even when he's sleepwalking (which he largely is here) and dubbed (which I also think he is here), and Eva Grimaldi is as beautiful as ever, but this is not the finest hour for either of them. (*)

Recently the uncut version (Australian VHS, the British is cut by 1 min 20 odd) of this very odd Italian Fred "The Hammer" Williamson film

Fred stars as the repellent Malone, a tough talking cop.

He say's to a girl he is protecting when she begins to speak "shut up, if you need to move your mouth put some food in it" (I would have thought of a coarser line)

He is on the hunt for some camp looking "bad guys" who replete with Bouffant hair and studded jackets look like prime "batchelor's for life" but seem to like killing, shooting and de-fouling who ever they can find.

Quite a good laugh with some grim scenes but at the end of the day in this one Fred has a butt bigger than a bus, his gut is held in by his belt, and when he runs he wobbles. He still kicks them all into the next century though

Stelvio Massi, the Roger Corman of Italy, cranked out an average of 4 films per year from 1954 to his death in 1994. Considering the haste, budgetary constraints and saturation problems this kind of schedule creates, Massi's films are much much better than they have any right to be.

Black Cobra stars a slightly bloated Fred "The Hammer" Williamson as an African American version of Dirty Harry - Detective Malone. Malone disobeys orders, doesn't compromise with people who he judges to be "scumbags" and is more than happy to contribute a little lead to anybody who asks for it. A female photographer has run afoul of a group of sociopathic, but nicely groomed, bikers and Malone is to be her protector.

Though not original, the story is decently told, and the script, although poorly dubbed, is OK. The acting is about what you would expect from a film of this nature, but some of the Italians are actually good. Nevertheless, the film did manage to cure my insomnia three nights in a row before I finally finished it last night and staggered off to bed in a daze.

For Completists Only.