Search - The Day of the Cobra on DVD

Many man-to-man fights, running, climbing, jumping, simplist

Pork Chop | Lisbon, Portugal | 03/30/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"In "DAY OF THE COBRA" (1980) Enzo G. Castellari demonstrates a

spectrum of talened movie making skills, that will appeal to the

audience from several points of view. Still, there are a number

of weak points in the overall picture, that downscore the movie

despite being small things, but that still have a significant

impact on the perception of quality.



The first, is the soundtrack's vocals, whose singer would have

greated benefited from several years of karoke practice and an

infinite number of singing lessons.



The second downside is the somewhat neanderthal dialog over

several scenes, which may leave uncomfortable the more

sophisticated, or even, the mainstream audience, and the

entirety of those disliking action movies. For the layman,

probably the soundtrack, and simplistic lines won't be an

issues.



On the other hand, the special effects (fireball explosions,

pistol battles, man-to-man fights, running, climbing, jumping

etc.) will no doubt appeal to those appreciating the more

physical aspects of this particular art work.



Starring Franco Nero and Sybil Danning, the former does an

fine, professional effort as a dead-serious, no-nonense

detective arriving from the USA to bust wide open a cocaine

trafficking ring operating between France and Italy. There's a

number of interesting filmed shots of Genova, mainly around the

shipping and maritime port operations and a few city shots too.



Inexplicably, there's a few humorous spots, from which some will

surely chuckle, such as the typical 70's era dance halls, and

the moment when the club owner takes her wig off, and shows off

a muscled body, revealing herself actually to be "Ivan",

anything but a woman.



Overall, despite the massive acting effort of Nero, and charisma

of the supporting cast, the picture has a distinctive "B-Movie"

feel to it, which is even more justified, as said, from the

monotone, narrow vocal range of a construction-worker singing

the central movie jingle "I am the Cobra..."



As a 1975 movie, it wouldn't have been bad, but released in

1980, surely it was massively dated in the minds of the public.

Yet, in terms of the action sequences, these still appear very

much fresh and real."