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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
My cat's name is "Pervis"..., 15 October 2007
4/10
Author: yetanotherharris from Satan's Colon

Meet Detective Robert Malone (Fred Williamson). Within the first ten minutes of BLACK COBRA, Detective Malone walks into a hostage situation that is, for some reason, taking place at a municipal pool. Instead of negotiating or trying to protect or comfort the hostages, Malone shoots all three terrorists dead without saying a word. When Malone's boss runs up to him and chews him out for reckless conduct, his response is: "They were scumbags!"

Like many cop movies in the 1980's, BLACK COBRA features a lone wolf cop with a direct (and excessively violent) approach to crime and complete disregard for the legal system or the protection of the innocent. Still, Detective Malone does have a soft side: he has a cat named Pervis who only eats food from the red-labeled cat food cans. Detective Malone also has a strange habit of returning his opened, empty cat food cans to the cupboard with the lids still attached.

The antagonists in this movie, given absolutely no background, no motive, and, in some cases, no dialogue, are a group of biker-types wearing sunglasses and leather outfits. Enter fashion photographer Elys Trumbo (Eva Grimaldi), who witnesses the gang's assault on her neighbors and, thinking quickly, takes several photographs of the gang's square-jawed and nameless leader (Bruno Bilotta). Now the gang wants her dead, and Malone is sent in to protect her.

This is, in many respects, very much an Italian counterpart to an American formula, complete with stolen lines and music. As is the case with low-budget movies of this type, there is plenty of gore and bad dubbing to go around, although surprisingly little nudity.

I found this movie on a two-movie disk along with BLACK COBRA 2 at a local department store in the dollar bargain bin. I thought it was every bit as entertaining as something this cheap can be. For those who like corny action flicks and are not very picky about the quality of the picture, sound or acting, this movie is well worth the price.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
B Movie fun with the Hammer!, 15 December 2004
Author: videomaniac from United States

I love B movies and I enjoyed Black Cobra. I wanted something to watch one rainy afternoon (I noticed that another reviewer watched it like that too) and so I gave this a look and I'm glad I did. Black Cobra is low low budget flick that provided enjoyable escapism for 90 minutes and kept me entertained. This is the type of film that you really have to accept on it's own terms or just leave alone. Ripping it apart would be easy but all the things that one could criticize are the exact same things that make Black Cobra the entertaining low budget flick that it is. One last thing: I agree with the other reviews that say the music in this flick sounds like it should be from a zombie movie. The Hammer should fight zombies in Black Cobra 4. I HOPE SOMEBODY READS THIS AND MAKES IT HAPPEN.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Standard Renegade Justice Film from Italy, 16 October 2007
2/10
Author: mstomaso from Vulcan

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.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
"Just Shut Up", 27 January 2003
Author: sirarthurstreebgreebling II from StreebGreebling Acres

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

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5 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
terrible - run away!!, 13 May 2003
Author: peterc-8 from Boston, MA

This is one of the films on the super-cheapo Brentwood 4 movie DVD set called Dealin Dirty.

Fred Williamson vs. a poofy bunch of 5'3" twerps on dirtbikes. I can't think of one good thing to say about this movie. An incoherent steaming pile. Fred is obviously bored by the film, to his credit he doesn't even try to act (...I dont show up 'till the check clears...got it??). Some of the nameless Italian actors do try to act a bit. Not really much point though, because it seems like someone lost the only copy of the script about half way through shooting.

The highlight of the film is the chief bad-guy. He looks like Pete Sampras' little brother after illegal estrogen therapy. He tries to menace, but no one can convincingly menace in bluejeans that are so well ironed.

There are a few unintentionally hilarious lines, like the almost-verbatim rip-off of the "do you feel lucky punk" dialog from one of my favorite Clint Eastwood flicks. It would have been genius if the lines were exactly the

same, but one of the sub-genius writers must have thought that no one would notice that he ripped the lines off if he changed a few words. Good thinking - that was close.

Overall Black Cobra is, poorly filmed, terribly scripted, terribly acted, and generally idiotic. Worst of all it is boaring.

I just thought of something good to say...Black Cobra is a lot better than the film Dealin Dirty (shot on video) that the DVD set is named for. Just the title sequence was enough to make me flip to the Anna Nicole Smith Show.

AVOID THE WHOLE SET!

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Not even "so bad it's good", 12 September 2009
2/10
Author: MetalGeek from New Jersey, USA

You gotta love those wacky Italian B-movie makers! They've never seen an idea they couldn't steal. In the case of 1987's "Cobra Nero" (a.k.a "Black Cobra"), the filmmakers obviously saw Sylvester Stallone's "Cobra" and thought "We can do that...way cheaper!" For those of you who may not remember Sly's "Cobra," Stallone played a rogue cop who played by his own set of rules, protecting a fashion model from a savage cult of murderous bikers. In "Black Cobra," former NFL star, malt liquor pitchman and 70s blaxploitation bad-ass Fred Williamson plays a rogue cop named Bob Malone (Malone = Stallone. Coincidence? I think not!) who plays by his own set of rules, protecting a fashion photographer from a savage gang of murderous bikers. You can just imagine the pitch meeting for this one. "See? She's a photographer, not a model. Totally different movie! And oh yeah, OUR guy is black!" "Black Cobra" is supposedly set in New York City (the film opens with stock footage of what appears to be Times Square, New York traffic, and the Brooklyn Bridge) but obviously the filmmakers are hoping that none of the audience has actually BEEN to America because after the opening all of the locations were quite obviously filmed in an Italian suburb. When we first meet our hero, Williamson goes "Dirty Harry" on a trio of bank robbers who are holding a group of hostages at a swimming pool. (?) When he's reprimanded by his superior officer for his lethal methods, Williamson snarls, "They were SCUM!" Anyway...oh hell, there's no point in describing this thing in depth. Fred Williamson sleepwalks through his part with a perpetual tough-guy snarl on his face (which I guess is supposed to suggest bad-assery, though it makes him look more like he's badly constipated), cigar clutched in his teeth, spouting off god-awful dialogue that was obviously written by an Italian who learned English from dime store crime novels and reruns of "Hunter." When Fashion Photographer Lady witnesses a gang of bikers murdering her next door neighbor for no apparent reason, she snaps a picture of their ringleader (a pretty boy with a gold tooth who looks about as threatening as Vanilla Ice), which makes her next on the gang's hit list. Williamson is assigned to protect her and they then spend the rest of the movie escaping constant attempts on their lives (via some of the cheesiest stunt work I've ever seen) before a final showdown in what appears to be a junk yard. During this scene Williamson delivers a gun-point speech to one of the bad guys that's such a blatant steal from Dirty Harry's famed "Do you feel lucky, punk?" that Clint would probably have sued the filmmakers into oblivion if anybody had bothered to bring it to his attention! As you might expect from an Italian production, character development is next to nothing in "Black Cobra." They try to give Williamson's character some kind of background when his partner fills Fashion Photographer Lady in on Malone's unhappy childhood and his tour in Vietnam, but the bad guys in this movie are total cartoon characters. I don't remember exactly what the motivation was for the villains in Stallone's "Cobra" but I vaguely remember that they had some sort of evil master plan in mind. In "Black Cobra" the bikers just drive around seemingly at random, apparently killing people whenever they get bored. I mean, they're not even TRYING to give them any motivation. The filmmakers obviously don't care why the bikers are bad, so why should we? Seriously, "Cobra" may not have been one of Sly's finest films, but compared to this Z-grade "homage" it might as well be "Citizen Kane." Amazingly enough, enough Italian action junkies must've paid to see "Black Cobra" because Williamson reprised the Malone character in two sequels! (I have "Black Cobra I and II" together on a double feature DVD that I picked up at the dollar store... watch for my review of "II" sometime before the universe implodes.) Though I love schlock as much as the next guy, by the middle of this one I was starting to nod off, so I would only recommend this film to people with perpetual insomnia.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, the malt liquor that Fred Williamson pitched on TV for a while back in the 80s was ... King Kobra. Again, coincidence? I think not.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Grade-Z action film, 15 July 2008
3/10
Author: gridoon2009

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. (*)

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
More Gluteus Maximus kicking with The Hammer!, 17 August 2007
6/10
Author: HaemovoreRex from United Kingdom

The ever watchable Fred 'The Hammer' Williamson headlines in this action outing that owes more than just a little to the Sylvester Stallone hit Cobra.

The plot for instance is directly stolen - erm, I mean borrowed from the aforementioned Hollywood flick and involves a group of disillusioned social misfits led by Karl Landgren (Apocalypse Mercenaries/Demons 2) who are terrorising the city with their decidedly antisocial behaviour. During one attack however, a sexy female photographer (the lovely Eva Grimaldi) manages to snap a few shots of our naughty boy in the act as it were. She manages to escape with her life but subsequently finds herself on the receiving end of the gangs unwanted attention as they desperately hunt her down in order to reclaim the evidence she has of them (oh and to kill her of course!)

Where is our main man the Hammer during all this? Well, as it turns out he is given the assignment to protect our damsel in distress. Needless to say - any film with Fred Williamson in it always features a fair quota of ass kicking and this is no exception, although it has to be said that the action isn't handled with nearly as much enthusiasm by the director as it could and indeed should have which is a real shame.

Nonetheless, the film remains at least enjoyable throughout and doesn't outstay it's welcome with it's relatively short running time.

Followed by three sequels (although the final one barely features Williamson in it!)

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Really dumb, 5 October 2009
2/10
Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Fred Williamson starred as Detective Robert Malone in a series of four Italian crime films. They are all testosterone films that ultimately defy logic and test an audience's patience to endure dumb plots and poorly executed action sequences. Williamson is a good actor but his ability to pick a project is poor. Actually I think his ability to pick up is quite good since he's constantly working.

The first in the series is essentially a really poor retread of the Sylvester Stallone film Cobra. In it Malone must protect a photographer from a gang that is murdering and raping at will. Its an odd mixing of American establishing shots with Italian interiors and a cast that has a decided European look to them. You never believe any of it. I'm hard pressed to wonder which of the films is worse, this or the original Cobra. I'm leaning just a bit toward this since the original is funnier for all the wrong reasons. This film is also funny for all the wrong reasons, but Williamson is less serious and it takes the edge off some of the hilarity. I can't really recommend this even to bad movie lovers since its pretty awful

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Fred Williamson is one tough dude..., 1 July 2008
10/10
Author: legendaryunderdog from United States

Fred Williamson rocks! I will admit that the cinematography is horrible, the acting is way below sub-par, the direction is beyond weak but this movie just rocks! Some movies can be "so bad that they're good" and this film is honestly a fine description of that phrase. Yeah the villains are awful dorky in their little bike-suits and dirt-bikes they haul around in. Williamson is solid gold as Detective Robert Malone in this flick, he's bad, he's mean, he's had a rough past that he'd love to forget and he gets to protect a photographer that took some incriminating photos of a biker gang (The Black Cobras) committing a crime that unfortunately for her and Malone didn't develop properly, soo (you guessed it!) that leaves the face of the culprit(s) as unknown. So Malone's gotta get out on the streets and do it his own way , this film should've been called "Dirty Robert", Williamson's character is practically a mirror image to Clint Eastwood's famous "Dirty" Harry Callahan character. I suggest this movie to everybody that breathes on the face of this earth. If you are having an evening alone (or with friends) and you wanna watch a movie that doesn't ask much of the viewer and you wanna see some butts get kicked....Then my friends, The Black Cobra is for You! 10 out of 10 stars because I'm sure nobody else likes this movie as much as I do!

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