Police cobra

After blowing away a drug dealer, Lt. Robert Malone (Fred "The Hammer" Williamson) is sent to Manila to cool his easy tempered jets as part of a "deal worked out between our Government and INTERPOL." Naturally, Malone finds himself right in another mess when, minutes after arriving in the Philippines, a pickpocket steals his wallet. Teaming up with INTERPOL agent Kevin McCall (Nicholas Hammond), Malone sets out to find his wallet but gets mixed up with the pickpocket's daughter, a group of crazed terrorists looking for microfilm (aren't they all?) and school children held hostage.

Fans of Fred Williamson might end up hammering their heads against the wall if they check this cheesy Italian buddy cop variation. The film opens with what can only be described as a "unique" chase. Williamson confronts a motorcycle riding drug dealer in a parking garage, chases him down the street to another parking garage, loses him on the Chicago L entry way but finally catches back up to him in another parking garage where Williamson proceeds to nearly blow his head off (the film's best and goriest effect) with his pistol. Yes, more parking garages than you can shake a stick at. Sadly, it is downhill from there. The plot is particularly muddled, containing something about terrorists wanting microfilm (what it contains is never explained) from the pickpocket's daughter Peggy, who naturally isn't aware she has it. For the most part the film follows the clichéd LETHAL WEAPON routine until the end where a bit of DIE HARD is thrown in for good measure.

Regardless of the lack of plot, the film does have an unusual charm. Financed by the Italy based Imagine company, BLACK COBRA 2 provides a few laughs through its dubbing and horrid dialogue. Upon learning of her father's death Peggy reminisces, "I couldn't stand the stories he used to tell me but now how I wish I could hear them again." Later she performs one of the most embarrassing "seductive" musical numbers ever captured on film. And you haven't lived until you see Williamson lured into performing a native Philippine dance ceremony. The last third of the film is probably the best section, with Williamson (who appears to have done all his own stunts) blowing away lots of bad guys to some of the most insane 80s guitar riffs. As always, Williamson is his charismatic, cigar chomping self and carries what little of the film there is. Fans of down and out casting should take note of Nicholas Hammond (Yes, Frederick Von Trapp himself) as Malone's partner.

So first of all, my 8/10 rating is in comparison to other movies of this league--no budget, 70's-80's action films.

I had always had in interest in seeing Black Cobra but never got around to buying the movie. So when I saw Black Cobra and Black Cobra 2 at Walmart a few days ago, I picked it up. I was most impressed with the second film. It's very entertaining considering:

1. Its Badassness counterbalances its cheesiness

2. Fred Williamson kicks ass for an hour and 33 minutes

3. There is one really good explosion

4. Fred Williamson crashes through a window and blows away six terrorists with a shotgun

5. Most of the dialog, surprisingly, is very decently written and pretty funny.

Synopsis: Fred "The Hammer" Williamson reprises his role as Robert Malone, a street-smart cop who likes to law down the law and blow sh*t up. Malone's police chief gets frustrated with him when he continues to stubbornly deal in his own brand of justice. So the chief sends Malone to Manilla, the Phillipines, in a foreign police exchange program.

Mallone then teams up with Lt. McCall in the Phillipines, who seems to be a tight wad, but ends up becoming his friend. When the two go to retrieve Mallone's stolen wallet, they stumble upon a murder and soon get pulled into a conspiracy. Together they kick a lot of *ss, and shoot a lot of criminals.

One of my personal favorite parts is when McCall's little boy (who for some reason has a really ridiculously dubbed voice) gets kidnapped, McCall approaches the man responsible for it. The man turns around to shoot McCall, but he shoots the man like eight times, point blank. And Fred Williamson, being a martial artist, beats those henchmen to sh*t.

This movie is very reminiscent of Dirty Harry, if you dig that series. Fred Williamson has a lot of natural acting charm, Nicholas Hammond delivers and is very believable as well. This movie is a gem, don't miss out on it.

My review was written in April 1990 after watching the movie on South Gate Entertainment video cassette.

Fred Williamson is on automatic pilot in the direct-to-video feature release from Italy, "The Black Cobra 2".

Carrying his trademark stogie, he plays a Chicago cop sent to Manila under an Interpol exchange program. Once in the Far East he teams up with Inspector McColl (Nicholas Hammond) to go after some terrorists, who end up kidnapping the heroine and McColl's son.

Uneventful film lacks the usual exploitation elements. Even the interracial theme involving Williamson's romantic exploits is extremely tame.

Tech credits are so-so, with poor dubbing of several of the supporting players. Edoardo Margheritit takes over directing the series from Stelvio Massi, with contradictory anglicized names (A. J. Dawson vs. Dan Edwards) displayed on the box versus the screen for this video.

I know it's contrary to what we're used, but "Black Cobra 2" is a lot better than "Black Cobra 1". Hooray! We found a rarity: a sequel that surpasses the original. This wasn't very difficult to accomplish, however, as the original was a complete mess of a film! The first was just a cheap attempt to cash in on Stallone's violent action flick "Cobra", but this movie actually has an ambitious plot, a half-decent narrative structure, light bulbs to brighten up the film sets and Fred Williamson who looks at least somewhat interested in the script. He returns as the unorthodox Chicago copper Robert Malone. For some reason, the opening sequences really accentuate that the film takes place in Chicago. There are shots of the Chicago Sun Times, the central station and Williamson himself even wears a jacket of the Chicago Cubs baseball team. After another umpteenth showcasing of his ruthless – but highly effective – working methods, Malone is forced to participate in a police exchange program. He's sent to The Philippines, where he falls under the command of Manila Interpol lieutenant McCall. One day later, Malone finds himself in trouble already, when they discover the assassinated body of a pickpocket artist who stole his wallet at the airport. Before they properly realize, Malone and McCall are caught up in a web of deceit, kidnapping, extortion, hired mercenaries and even terrorism. In many ways this is a typically annoying 80's movie, because it features irrelevant padding footage (bamboo dancing, anyone?), a pathetic romantic compilation and a lot of painfully awful "comical" interludes. It's also incredibly slow in places, with overlong boring investigations and completely unexciting fight sequences. Fred Williamson perhaps looks very tough, with his gigantic mustache and even bigger cigars, but he really sucks at Kung Fu moves! The climax is laugh-out-loud hilarious, as it includes the preparation of something what appears to become the biggest and most adventurous operation in the history of action cinema, but eventually Malone and McCall are just set out to kill three guys in two minutes.

The Black Cobra 2 (1989) is a movie that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows Lieutenant Bob Malone being restationed from Chicago to the Philippines where his methods hopefully cause less issues. He arrives in Manila and immediately is targeted by a local gang and pick pocketed. He will need to work with a local police officer, ie his new partner, to track down his stolen wallet and the people behind the act.

This movie is directed by Edoardo Margheriti (Black Cobra 3) and stars Fred Williamson (Dusk till Dawn), Nicholas Hammond (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Peter Ladkani (Delta Force 2).

This picture has fun 80s music throughout. I really enjoyed the soundtrack. The writing is very average, both the storyline and dialogue. The one liners were corny and not as witty as they hoped. There was too much about this film that was cliche and the end felt like a bubble gum commercial.

Overall, I would consider this a below average addition to the buddy cop genre. I would score this a 3.5/10 and recommend skipping it.