The “half-baked” movie Sylvester Stallone regrets making: “I could have done better”
We see a lot of movies that seem like they needed another script rewrite, a little more time in the oven. While Sylvester Stallone is an unshakable icon of film, he is familiar with the feeling.
Stallone is the cinematic underdog athlete for his performance in the original, groundbreaking Rocky and its sequels. He would also return as Rocky Balboa, now in the role of a mentor, for the equally epic Creed films starring Michael B Jordan. Aside from the dip in quality with the later Rocky instalments, this boxing saga may feel like not one moment is out of place. Rocky is cited as one of the best movies of all time for a reason.
But beyond the pseudo-action of boxing matches, Stallone is also indisputedly a pillar of the traditional action genre. The Rocky star broke out in the action scene with 1982’s war film First Blood. Stallone stars in all of First Blood’s four (less well-received) sequels as well, most recently 2019’s Rambo: Last Blood. He even pitched a Rambo prequel using AI de-aging technology at one point. And that’s just the start.
Stallone went on to star in Cop Land, The Expendables, and Demolition Man, reaching the point where his very presence in an action movie is a metatextual element. However, along the way, he would make one or two films that he was disappointed by. One is 1986’s Cobra, directed by George P. Cosmatos, and starring and written by Stallone, based on Paula Gosling’s novel A Running Duck. Cobra follows Marion “Cobra” Cobretti, who protects the sole surviving witness to a violet crime.
“Cobra to me, was half-baked, I could have done better, but I wasn’t concentrating enough,” says Stallone in an interview with JoBlo.com at the Toronto International Film Festival. “I felt as though that’s something I should have directed, and I didn’t, and I regret that. That’s one thing about making movies, aside from watching your hairline recede, you go, ‘god, why didn’t I try harder?’”
Stallone’s comments are interesting in that he chalks up this failure to him simply not being concentrated while working on the project, as well as having declined to take on the additional responsibility of directing when he was already writing the script and starring in the film. Stallone’s general track record shows that he is excellent at writing movies he stars in. His directorial credits are more limited, helming Rocky II and The Expendables.
Whether Stallone chose to direct was probably not the deciding factor that doomed Cobra. On the other hand, I know today I see a lot of action films that could be described as “half-baked.” They are formulaic, only touching upon deeper themes than “Look! More superheroes!” rather than exploring anything important to real life in a meaningful way. But I don’t necessarily believe this is because the writers were being lazy behind the scenes.
Action movies that are going to be a critical phenomenon need to have a certain vision from the start, and I get the sense that Cobra, as an action flick, always had a specific purpose, and this wasn’t it. Cobra sits at a shocking 17% on Rotten Tomatoes, but is still going strong as a cult classic among the most die-hard fans of Stallone’s career.
