Blu-ray Review Cobra Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

[Michael Osadciw]

ACrime is a disease. Meet the Cure. Sylvester Stallone plays Cobra, a tough cop trying to rid the city of the worst criminals. When a series of murders continues daily, the cops only have one lead - a girl who is being hunted, and Cobra is the only one to protect her and end the rise of the new order.

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COBRA​

Release Date: August 16, 2011
Distributor: Warner Bros.
Packaging/Materials: keepcase, no insert
Year: 1986
Rating: R
Running Time: 88 minutes
THE FEATURE
Video 1080p 1.78:1
AUDIO
English DTS 5.1 Master Audio, 2.0 French, Italiano, Castellano, Portugues, Cesky, Polski, Russian
SUBTITLES
English SDH, French, Italiano, Caste, Nederlands, Japanese, Espanol, Portugues, Ceske, Dansk,
Suomi, Greek, Norsk, Polski, Russian, Svenska, and two other Asian languages I can't decipher.
The Feature: 2.5/5
After Rocky and Rambo, Sylvester Stallone writes the screenplay of man who is the cure to the disease of crime – Marion Cobretti, aka “Cobra”. In a city where crime is rampant, a new order is trying to emerge. Bodies are found day after day at complete random with no connection between people. They are brutally murdered and the police force is at odds as to who the serial killer is and where he will strike next. Failing to kill the most recent target, a fashion model named Ingrid, the police find that there could be more than one person involved. Villains kill mercilessly in an attempt to weed out the weak leaving only the strong to survive. This is the new order.
Ingrid is now an even greater target as the killers don’t want to be recognized. Cobretti wants to investigate further against the wishes of his superiors, but he knows that he’s the only one competent to protect Ingrid from being killed. Car chases, bullets, and motorbike madness completes the film’s action sequence to the climatic ending where we are to decide whether to spare those who kill and respect the justice system or to act upon our instincts and become murderers just like them.
Video Quality: 2/5
The dated image has been reformatted to 1.78:1. Black level is weak throughout lessening the overall contrast in scenes. The colour range is also limited compared to today’s films but has the look of many 1980s films. Compression artifacts and edge enhancement are absent and the presence of grain throughout the film gives this disc a good warm and fuzzy movie going experience. Resolution is quite good with sharp details and good depth. The only puzzling artifact I found was in a few dark shots. Black vertical lines, blacker than the black in the film, stretch across the screen momentarily and then disappear. This can be seen in the open shots of the film and in a few other instances. Still, this is undoubtedly the best this film has ever looked!
Audio Quality: 3/5
The film has been given an upgraded DTS 5.1 Master Audio lossless soundtrack from the original Ultra Stereo mix. It sounds surprisingly good, and while sounding dated, the effects are spread among all channels. Dialogue, gun shots, music, effects all sound a bit thin and lacking in dynamic range and the LFE channel gets a bit of a workout. But the soundtrack is good for what it is and doesn’t detract from the experience.
Special Features: 1/5
In addition to the commentary by director George P. Cosmatos (Rambo: First Blood Part II, Tombstone), there is a short 8 minute Making of Featurette that was shot with camcorders behind the scenes. Despite its short time, I enjoyed this little piece as a bit of film history. The movie isn’t complex; it’s short, action filled, and not too deep. This is what we see behind the scenes unlike the highly complex action films shot today. The theatrical trailer is also included. Both features are in 480i and 1.33:1.
In the end...
Stallone and the bad guys. Who will win? With a laser mount submachine gun and a pearl handled Colt .45, Cobra blasts his way through the genre and remains an icon of the 1980’s action flicks. Warner has kept the original cover art for this Blu-ray disc which is a smart move as it’s the one I’ve always remembered on video store racks. Appearing again on the racks in 2011, this is the best looking and sounding Cobra we’ve seen to date.
Mike Osadciw
11.08.04

 

[Citizen87645]

This is a definite guilty pleasure.

 

[cineMANIAC]

Thanks for the review Michael. I'm a little confused by your low rating for the picture quality. You say it looks dated and black levels are weak but that the resolution is good and the image is sharp. So Warner used an old transfer but the Blu is an improvement over the DVD? I can live with that. What I don't understand is why don't they use newer materials when updating these catalog flicks to hi-def. I mean, it can't be that much more expensive, can it? Many of these movies have a huge fan base and, many of us already have them on DVD so we need an incentive if we're going to upgrade to the next format. Like I said, I can live with it. I just don't like it.

 

[Michael Osadciw]

Hello there, and thank you for the kind comments. If Warner had a 2K high def master made and used for the previous DVD and eventually a BD, I have little reason to believe that something new would have been created for this BD. This high def transfer appears to be fine. Don't let the rating fool you - this title would never get a 5/5 rating. Even if this is the best this would ever look - ever and ever - and ever - it would still not get a 5/5 when compared to the better looking films. I'm happy with the presentation. It is a jump in detail over the DVD - quite a bit, I believe, and in many scenes it is evident. I believe fans, and those with guilty pleasures, will indulge in this Sly action flick.

 

[HenryDuBrow]

Looks like this presentation overall is going for somewhat more drab colors, not a landslide but just enough to irritate my eagle eye tweaked slightly in the teal direction unfotunately, this is Warner Bros. as we know them now often disturbing their older films' originality.

 

[Tony Bensley]

Thanks for the review Michael. I'm a little confused by your low rating for the picture quality. You say it looks dated and black levels are weak but that the resolution is good and the image is sharp. So Warner used an old transfer but the Blu is an improvement over the DVD? I can live with that. What I don't understand is why don't they use newer materials when updating these catalog flicks to hi-def. I mean, it can't be that much more expensive, can it? Many of these movies have a huge fan base and, many of us already have them on DVD so we need an incentive if we're going to upgrade to the next format. Like I said, I can live with it. I just don't like it.

In a backhanded way, this might be encouraging, in that Warner's previous policy towards Blu-ray titles, was that they had to be just about perfect, in order to release. Perhaps, this might bode well for some long time awaited unreleased to Blu-ray Warner owned titles whose restoration costs might otherwise be forever prohibitive, as per their it has to be perfect to release on Blu-ray policy? Time will tell!

CHEERS!