Lawbolisted Powerful

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Leofwine_draca The dumb-but-fun ANACONDA was a giant snake movie that received a lot of flak from the critics. Personally, I thoroughly enjoyed the film, both at the cinema and at home on television. So when I saw the reviews for KING COBRA (itself marketed as ANACONDA 2 in some instances) I didn't take too much notice of them, figuring them to be just more negative comments from guys who hate the genre in the first place. Sadly, the criticism received by KING COBRA is entirely correct, as this cheap and tacky killer snake flick scrapes the bottom of the barrel in every instance. Heck, even the poorly-acted low-budget '50s B-movies with appalling effects were more fun than this modern variation, which has better effects but is substandard in every other way.Anybody expecting the monster rampage usually offered by such "creature features" will be disappointed by the minimal action on offer here; the film progresses as usual, with the creation of the threat and then the gradual deaths of townsfolk living in the outskirts of the town in the woodland, but things never progress from here. Instead, the best entertainment value the film can offer is throw a bunch of dumb rednecks into the snake's lair and have it eat them all one by one. Later, when a wooden actor uses a Van Damme kick to repel the snake, you know the film is in big trouble. The snake P.O.V. shots are also WAY overused, to the point of exhaustion, whereas any opportunity for gore or sadism is kept to a minimum, unfortunately, by the film's PG-13 certificate.Not that there aren't any incidental pleasures. Indeed, one of the film's highlights is an out-of-nowhere appearance by a down-on-his-luck overacting Erik Estrada, playing the town's campest inhabitant, whilst an aged Pat Morita appears to offer an amusing spin on his KARATE KID mentor character and gives the film some of its best humour. The special effects of the snake itself are very well created, unsurprising when it turns out that the reliable Chiodo Brothers are behind the menace, and it's just a shame that they aren't used to a greater purpose. The anti-climatic ending is also stupid and unexplained and as a whole the entertainment value is kept to a minimum, with just a few high points of so-bad-it's-good value. Definitely not a film to bother with unless you have a really high tolerance for pure trash.

GL84 After a series of snake attacks, small town doctors find that the snake is an escaped test subject which has the genetics of a cobra and a rattlesnake forcing them to find and destroy the deadly creature before it goes through the town's populace.This was a lot better than expected. One of its best features is the fact that the film moves along at a fast pace, never hitting a lull or a dull spot and there's plenty of stuff going on here to keep it interesting. It starts off nicely as the opening action in the lab with the loosened snake is great as it stalks the others through the flaming ruins, the building suspense of the experiment going out-of-control and the chaos and panic works really well while other action scenes are just as good. There's a lot to really enjoy about the attack in the home, which is wonderfully suspenseful and really interesting from the snake POV used to sneak up on the victim to its rather impressive revelation, where the snake appears as a silhouette against the just-turned-off TV screen, the realization dawns and the attack begins. The fact that the snake's POV is used often is another good one for the film, since it's an actually fun technique that manages to get some really tense moments when it's stalking it's victims, and as there's a lot of really good stalking scenes throughout this allows for a couple of nice scenes. The final encounter in the woods is all-out fun with logical methods of dealing with the creature, a lot of really nice strikes and the really clever manner of catching the creature is one of the best parts of the film. The cobra look is also really good, as there's prosthetics used in place of CGI, the addition of the menacing and unique hood is another nice touch and gives it a really impressive look that gives off the appearance that it's actually there for its positive points that hold this one up enough against the flaws. The most obvious one is the rating, as the fact that this one is a PG-13 film does stand out in here. The kills are either so quick as to be hardly imaginable or simply bloodless as they're really just bites and have no real jolt to them. Some diversity in the kills as well would've helped this one immensely as a difference in the amount of bloodshed would've gone a long way with this one. The other flaw in this one is that there's an extreme over- reliance on lame jump gags, as stuff like the friendly-POV that scares an innocent victim, the screeching cat and the off-screen crashing noises are all used frequently and too ill-effect, making for some aggravating viewing at times. Otherwise, there's a lot to really like about this one.Rated PG-13: Violence and Language.

RainofMagic I'd like to start this off by saying that it's my personal belief snake-based movies are one of the lowest forms of sci-fi/thriller genre movies ever. "King Cobra" is absolutely no better than any other snake movie I've seen. In many ways, it's even worse.. I guess we should start with the acting. A possible savior in lesser-known, low-budget clichés. Well to skip an overly long summary, it was pretty mediocre on all accounts. Most characters have little actual dialog, little personality, and very little background. They're all extremely bland, and have little to separate themselves from each other. Pat Morita is probably the best in the movie, which isn't really saying much.Next up would be the effects. Very crappy CGI is notable from almost the start. Most of the snake effects are slow and unrealistic considering they're always mentioning how "fast and evasive" it's supposed to be. It comes off as weird when you see the actual 'snake' have the reflexes and alertness of a retarded turtle. Last would be the plot. Which you can't expect a whole lot from in a giant terrorizing snake movie. However, whatever little was there was not implemented well whatsoever. The whole "hybrid" thing is barely mentioned even though it's the main trait of the snake.I'd be really surprised if this wasn't commonly found in a bargain bin, or a pawn shop somewhere. It's really that bad. 1/10, although should be lower for the wasted money spent on it..

Bogmeister 30 feet of pure terror! So proclaims the jacket ad. The monster snake is actually a Cobra-Rattlesnake creation, the result of genetic tinkering. After the obligatory lab explosion, it escapes and settles down in a small rural town to make life hectic for the hicks, who call in snake-expert Pat Morita (from Happy Days and the "Karate Kid" movies). This flic is rather low-budget and must have went direct-to-video. I'm not really sure how much of it is unintentionally funny or tongue-in-cheek (especially the climactic battle between Morita & the Monster, who, by the way, is named Seth). But, it comes off as entertaining in a goofy, lopsided manner, hearkening back to all those monster flics of the 1950s (and the 1970s, come to think of it). There weren't that many giant snake movies back then, however, instead mostly giant insects and an occasional lizard. Then we got "Anaconda" in '97 and the rest is history - the Sci-Fi Channel has a sub genre load of these by now. The snake-monster itself in "King Cobra" is fairly well executed, showing that even with a very low budget, FX can be done in a reasonable fashion these days. Lucky us.