The Cobra (1968)

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

OK, I'll admit it: this film is so boring that I finished watching it in the space of three days - I just couldn't take more than 30 minutes a day. The story has no drive to it, and the final unmasking of "The Cobra", probably meant to be shocking, induces only a giant "Meh!". There are no exciting action scenes or stunts. The hero is scruffy and charisma-free, Anita Ekberg is hysterical (literally!), although she does briefly snap out of it at one point to save the hero's life; then she goes back to being a victim again. In short, you deserve a medal if you can get through this one - even Stallone's 1986 dud "Cobra" is better than this! * out of 4.

The movie starts off well enough with a cheesy rock score by Anton Garcia Abril that leads into a cool psychedelic credit sequence but it's all downhill from there. Peter Martell, who made a lot of spaghetti westerns, is a less than likable lead; a swarthy brute with John Wayne delivery who's always getting the gun knocked out of his hand. Martell is Mike Rand, an ex-Treasury agent who, we are told, was discharged from a high security post `for the good of the nation.' He must be a bad boy, all right. Rand says `man' a lot and sweatily muscles his way into bed with the high-class likes of Anita Ekberg. Her name's Lou and she runs a women's spa when she's not shooting up drugs. Ekberg looks pretty darn good for a strung out junkie but she's not given nearly enough to do here. The other big star, the one who's given way too much to do is Dana Andrews. Andrews is Kelly, Rand's boss, and he's in on a surprising amount of the action in the film. One wonders why, exactly. Andrews seems pretty deep into the sauce and his boot-blacked hair doesn't melt away the years the way they thought it would.To sum up, aside from a couple of bright spots, this is not really a good or fun film. You would have to be in a pretty tight spot to want to spend your time with Mike Rand, man.