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This review is for the standard DVD edition of 'King Cobra' released by Trimark/LionsGate in 2004.
This movie was released the same year as the far superior 'Anaconda'. I am not a fan of this movie. This is a poorly executed movie and low budget is not an excuse. I'm giving it 2 stars. My reasons are below in COMMENTS.
Oh by the way, the King Cobra isn't even a King Cobra. If this were a Roger Corman movie it would have been called 'RattleCobra'.
EXTRA'S : There are some decent extra's. They are:
-Commentary - There is a commentary track from the two brothers that made and directed this movie.
-The Making of King Cobra - This is a short documentary on how the snake was designed and made.
-Trailer
COMMENTS:
-Let's start with the eponymous King Cobra. The King Cobra is not a King Cobra. It is a hybrid Cobra and Rattlesnake. So if you will... RattleCobra. Yes I know... we should put 'Cobra' first in the title but then it would be CobraRattle. That sounds like a baby toy, not a scary movie!
-What was that scene with Erik Estrada?... this was obviously meant as comic relief, but I didn't get it.
-Pat Morita sounds odd. It sounds like he is being dubbed but in fact he is not. He is usually faking a Japanese accent in many of his acting roles but he is really American. I checked to see if he was dubbed but in the director's commentary it says he is speaking with his natural voice.
-The snake looked good. The special effects were practical effects with the snake being constructed by the Chiodo brothers of 'Killer Klowns from Outer Space' fame. The problem that I had with it is that they never show the snake 'whole'. They constantly show you the 'head' and the 'tail' and occasionally the 'body'. Don't get me wrong, I think the head looked real good. I just don't like the way they kept cutting from head to tail and back again. It becomes very obvious that they don't have a whole snake to shoot. In other words, the director's didn't do a good enough job.
-I did not like the 'transitions'. The movie constantly cuts away at critical moments when the snake strikes (and a few other times). This is OK once or maybe twice. However, the directors do this constantly throughout the movie. This gives the strong impression that the director's did not know how to shoot the scene or didn't have the budget to do so. It reeks of 'cheapness'.
-The acting was below par. The male lead was not good. There was nothing even close to a memorable performance in this movie.
-The ending scene was just ridiculous on so many levels that I don't even know how to criticize it. Hash won't let Dr. Burns shoot the snake when he has a straight shot to the it's head with the snake perfectly still. His reason? That wasn't the plan. His elaborate trap and speech about how you won't be able to shoot the snake because it will be moving and you will panic seems to have gone to waste if it was that easy. So remember boys and girls, if you have an invader in your house and you trap him in a locked room, let him go and call the police because it's their job to catch him and that's how it's supposed to be done. Speaking of which...
When the snake IS captured in their cage, they make a point of pushing the damn thing 30 or more feet to a tree to close the other end because you know... that was much faster to do than just running and closing the door on the other side of the tree. They actually said they didn't have time to close it! Everything about this scene was wrong. I could go on but let's not and say we did.
-Hash had to be the dumbest herpetologist in history. He says he has been bitten 167 times! Rather than just shooting the damn snake, he stares the thing down and gets bitten at least 5 times before he expires (or so it is assumed, since we never actually see him die nor are we told).
-One of the snakes fangs is found in a victim. Right after this, the snake already has it's fang back. Snakes can grow back their fangs. I very much doubt this occurs within 1 day.
-After the prologue, the opening scene has a little boy being attacked by the snake. Problem is, he doesn't attack the little boy. Why is anybodies guess. It attacks everything else. Instead the kid is paralyzed with fear.
-The snake eats one victim and pretty much just goes around killing everything else. This makes no sense. This is a very common problem with this genre of movies. I know it's nitpicking but there has to be a reason to make it believable. Snakes and other animals don't go hunting for victims to kill. They hunt to eat. If a victim just happens to be in the area, fine... at least you can say they killed out of fear.
RECOMMENDATIONS/CONCLUSIONS: If you want to see a giant snake movie, you would be much better off seeing 'Anaconda' which was released the same year.
Special effects are 3 stars. I'd rate this higher except that there is not 'whole' snake. So even though the head looks good, that's all it is. It's a head and nothing more and it becomes more and more obvious as the movie goes on. The acting gets 1 1/2 stars. The plot gets 1 star. Extra's are 3 stars.
I'm giving this movie a total of 2 stars.
Recommended for completists only. Basically if you need to have every giant snake movie in your collection then you will need this.
Erik Estrada fans? I doubt very much you will want to add this to your Erik Estrada collection. This is not the Erik Estrada of Chips fame.
Are there any Pat Morita fans out there? Otherwise I can't really recommend this movie for anyone else.
| Additional DVD options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
|
DVD
February 19, 2004 "Please retry" | DVD | 1 | $9.99 | $11.09 |
|
DVD
August 10, 1999 "Please retry" | — | 1 | $28.80 | — | $5.99 |
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