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After the subpar Italian action film Black Cobra of 1987, the question arises whether people were wanting to see more of Fred ‘The Hammer’ Williamson’s tough New York cop character Robert ‘Bob’ Malone, but if there were, a couple of years later their wish would be granted with The Black Cobra 2. However, the franchise might not have seemed appealing back then, but with the hindsight of 2021, we can now all agree that a franchise is much more appealing if there is a ‘The’ in front of it. This time for reasons that are never explained, Williamson is now a tough cop who resides in Chicago and Purvis the cat has entirely disappeared, while the black leather trench coat gets swapped out for black leather pants. Well, at least the cigar is still there.
Gone are Directors Stelvio Massi, who has been replaced here by Edoardo Margheriti, amusingly dubbed Dan Edwards. It was actually Margheriti’s first work as a director: he is mostly known as a second unit director for the portions shot in Rome and Budapest for 1991’s Hudson Hawk. If Margheriti really wanted to do something in the blaxploitation genre, then he really deserves some good will for the fact that the first 5 minutes of The Black Cobra 2 has more black actors than the entire length of the original (non-spoiler alert – Williamson was the only black actor in Black Cobra, a record he would actually reprise, eh, almost thirty years later in the 2015 cinema Atomic Eden).
Williamson has once again landed himself in trouble whilst on a rather embarrassing foot chase. If you can even call that a chase. The star himself seems to be quite out of breath as tackling the stairs going up or down appears to be beyond him. Perhaps he should have refrained himself from smoking that cigar. A major difference from the original is that he spends no time urging a pool of women hostage. Instead, he seems to enjoy shooting a gun straight into the Mishka’s visor. It is amazing how Williamson manages to get himself in trouble. Getting his fitness level checked is the last thing he’ll be worried about. Good thing Interpol is offering some sort of relief. An international exchange program is afoot, so rather than being suspended, he is ordered to Manila. “I’m not going to the Philippines,” says Williamson, and it is evident that he is not happy with the situation. But truth be told, if this sequel has any chance of being better than the original (which it is not), then the Philippines and relatively less advanced set of cultures tend to be a good start.
Even though Margheriti lacked the credentials of an accomplished director he was savvy enough to realize he would be getting value for his dollar in Manila. When there Williamson is pick pocketed even before he leaves the airport which is quite amusing in a sense because the pick pocket had the courtesy to gloat that it is a lovely country and the citizens are the best which confirms the obligation to the POBO is done! If Black Cobra was a blatant take off from the Sylvester Stallone movie Cobra, the sequel pays more attention to the buddy movie Lethal Weapon and its sequel which was released in the same year and it is not out of bounds of possibility that the rapid production of these flicks was what influenced the latter.
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