I could go on and on about how awesome Cobra is, but I’m sure you don’t need to hear my completely biased opinion. I rank it as my favourite Stallone film if that tells you anything. I won’t bother wasting your time, as Ryne has already reviewed the movie and touched on the new Blu-ray from Scream Factory. I will avoid the movie part and focus on whether or not Scream Factory has released a Blu-ray worthy of purchasing.
First, let’s get the number one issue that is putting some people into a tizzy. THE PINK TINT!!! Echo echo echo. It seems Scream Factory’s newest Blu-ray has a bit of a pink tone to some of the scenes compared to the original WB Blu-ray. This pink tone, however, doesn’t come even close to the amount of pink in the DVD release. It seems WB alternated the colour for their Blu-ray release, and Scream’s Blu lands somewhere in the middle of the old DVD and WB Blu. It’s been forever since I’ve seen the film on VHS, and I never did see it theatrically, so I 100% can’t say with certainty that this bit of pink is right or wrong. To me, Scream seems to the find the happy middle ground in regards to the look of the flick. Meaning, when it’s pink, it’s during scenes that should have a bit of a pinkish tone. Another factor in favour of Scream’s transfer is the fact that the 2K transfer was created at Warner Bros. Anyway, let’s take a look at some screenshots comparing the DVD, WB Blu-ray and the new Scream Factory Blu-ray.
WB DVD – Top
Scream Factory Blu-ray – Middle (caps taken from caps-a-holic)
WB Blu-ray – Bottom (caps taken from caps-a holic)
As you can see, the transfer between the three has the DVD looking the most pink, the WB Blu-ray having no pink and jacking up the contrast to a crazy level, and the Scream Factory is landing pretty much in the middle as I said earlier. Now, which one do you like? That honestly is entirely up to you and you alone.
Now, let’s discuss the features between the different releases. Three features are shared among all the releases, and that is the audio commentary with George P. Cosmatos, a vintage featurette, and a trailer. Scream Factory’s release, on the other hand, includes some new extras that I’m sure will please plenty of fans. First, we have an interview with Brian Thompson that runs 26-minutes. He provides a lot of insight into working with Stallone and his ego. He also has nothing nice to say about George P. Cosmatos, who may be listed as the director, but it was Stallone who did most of the work. The next feature is a 24-minute interview with Marco Rodríguez, who played the “disease” at the beginning of the film. The third new feature is a 14-minute interview with Andrew Robinson, who seems to think the movie could have been better if the characters were fleshed out more. The last two interviews are with Lee Garlington, which last 9-minutes, and Art LaFleur which last 8-minutes. Also included on Scream Factory’s release that isn’t present on other releases is a teaser trailer, Still Gallery: Photos, and Still Gallery: Movie Posters and Lobby Cards. It would have been nice to have Brigitte Nielsen and Sly Stallone involved, or the infamous workprint, but this release still deserves the Collector’s Edition moniker.
The Scream Factory release of Cobra is going to be worthwhile for most of the fans of the flick. However, there will be people out there who are sad the film has a different colour tone that may or may not be right. Also, some may even be angry that a man’s coat might not be as black as it appeared 33 years ago. I don’t know if there is any winning when it comes to releasing older films on Blu-ray.
