'Cobra' and the case for 'good' bad Sylvester Stallone movies

For years Sylvester Stallone's cinematic oeuvre has been a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. His name was synonymous with bloated 1980s action excess, even the Rocky movies were largely dismissed by more pretentious cinephiles.

But then along came Creed, and Stallone's revelatory, Oscar-nominated supporting performance in it. Now, even skeptics are taking a look at Stallone the actor -- and I might add, deservedly so.

I have long felt that Stallone was a potentially great actor who lost his way, became too preoccupied with his own vanity and was too unwilling to let other collaborators step in to focus on his strengths as a performer.

With Creed he turned over the reigns to Ryan Coogler, with stirring results. Hopefully, going forward, he will continue to take risks with his star image -- but if the rumors of a planned Rambo 5 are true, I won't be holding my breath.

But this column in not about the "good" Stallone of films like Copland, First Blood or the bulk of the Rocky films. Although I do enjoy those films a great deal.

The worst police sketch ever

I also see value -- albeit pure adrenaline rush amusement -- in his more trashy vehicles, of which there is a seemingly endless supply. Take 1986's Cobra for instance, a crude Dirty Harry knock-off (it even casts that film's villain as a stuffy bureaucrat in the police department), with laughable dialogue, over-the-top product placement and a plot that is pedestrian at best.

There is so much wrong about this movie and yet it's totally watchable and always entertaining.

Part of why I prefer Stallone to Schwarzenegger as an actor is that he is almost never ironic, he is always being sincere as hell. And his earnestness makes his B-movies more effective than if he were standing apart from the material in a smug sort of way.

There are plenty of absurd, nonsensical things in Cobra -- the bad guys appear to be some sort of vague underworld gang that worships axes, he cuts up slices of pizza with a pair of scissors and multiple series of scenes are cut in a music video style that is utterly disorienting.

But I still kind of love it. I love it as a piece of '80s-aesthetic kitsch. I was amused by its barely disguised right wing railing against the supposed inefficacy of law enforcement rules and regulations. And I was impressed with Stallone, with his physicality and unmistakable star presence.

Long before The Expendables movies rendered his presence as an action star somewhat silly and then eventually kinda sad, Stallone was one of the last genuine cinematic badasses around. There are no new Charles Bronsons or Clint Eastwoods, or Jim Browns for that matter.

Stallone's characters were not quirky or really particularly conflicted. They were lunkheaded and boorish, but in the best way.