Cobra is a relatively rare entry into the realm of Brucesploitation as it is from Indonesia. The film starts with a Bruce look-alike training on the beach with his master. After a few stones are thrown at his head and blocked, Indra (the Bruce look-alike) is sent away with a few words of wisdom. Back at his home, the master is attacked by a former classmate named Tobias, who wields a three-snake topped staff and makes one demand... be my friend or die. The master refuses of course, and is dispatched as a result. Indra mourns for a bit and then moves to Jakarta with the master’s daughter, Yenti. Indra struggles to find work, but happens upon the Scorpio gang in the midst of an attack and saves the life of the sub-boss. After passing a test similar to the Game of Death, Indra is anointed as another thug in the main boss’s army of ingrates. Indra soon becomes friends with Dira, a fellow thug, and the two start to have misgivings about the jobs they have to carry out. After killing an innocent business man, Indra tries to get out of the gang once and for all. However, Sugara (Chen Lau), the main boss’s enforcer, has Indra’s wife and daughter Fifi killed and tries to frame the Scorpio gang for the crime. Dira alerts Indra to the plot and the two go after the entire group, starting with the boss.

As is to be expected, there is not much to say with this movie. Whoever the main actor is (despite the cover, it’s not Bruce Le), he has the staple Bruceisms down pat. You get the nose flick, the “come on” fingers gesture, the double-stomp and twist, all the classics. The filmmakers even go so far as to start to mimic the famous Bruce vs Han mirror scene, but thankfully abort it before too much harm was done. The film itself is a mess, with sloppy editing and massive plot holes. The main actor is a decent fighter, but the choreography is nothing special. There is also a very odd, semi-pornographic orgy scene that seems completely out of place and some somewhat surprising plot twists, including the sudden re-emergence of Tobias, but nothing can really save the film. Only Brucesploitation completists need apply.

Note: the picture on the DVD I watched (cover is uploaded) would inexplicably go completely out of focus at certain points in the film. Granted I was not expecting a glass copy of this film, but focus issues are inexcusable.

2/10