Black Cobra 2 picks up somewhere in the future after part 1, only now we're in Chicago. Sick of the Hammer's cop on the edge/break the rules to get the job done style, his chief sends him off to Manila as part of an Interpol exchange program. What better way to set a film in the more affordable Philippines, but when you have a cop like the Hammer, trouble has a way of finding him, and it does here in the way of a pickpocket who lifts his wallet being found dead when they track him down. Now the Hammer and his partner, an Interpol cop stationed in Manila played by Peter Parker/Spider-man from the old Spider-man TV series, need to get to the bottom of this and solve the crime. The baddies won't know what hit them.
This is the Hammer you came for in a nice, slick, Filipino-set Italian-produced late 80s actioner complete with a nice synthesizer/guitar score. I'll take a bad boy like this any day of the week and twice on Sunday. But this is also why I'm the moron for trying to force more modern DTV flicks into the rotation when there are gems like this out here to be watched and reviewed. Williams starts this heavy, and doesn't let up; there's a good action quotient, but when we don't have action we have the Hammer here propping up those scenes as well. I don't know that I have this as better than part 1, but it definitely keeps the train moving in a positive direction, and for a DTV sequel, that's all you can ask for.
We're now at 17 Williamson films, and we'll be at 18 once part 3 is up. For someone of his stature that low number is appalling, and I understand that as well as anyone. Our last Williamson post was when we did part 1 a little over a month ago, and I went back and checked: this is the shortest time between Williamson posts since November of 2007, when I went just shy of a month between Williamson films; but usually it's more like a year or several months between, which means we're now doing better, but we have more work to do. I mean, I put Williamson right behind Dolph as the best DTV star ever--and you could possibly make the case that he's the best ever--so the fact that I have been so negligent in getting his films up is an egregious error on my end. We'll keep working on it.
Williamson's co-star is Nicholas Hammond, who, as I mentioned, played Peter Parker/Spider-man on the old Spider-man TV series. When I was growing up, I feel like I remember those episodes aired on cable in the form of movies, so maybe they combined episodes to do that. My issue with it was it had none of the great Spider-man rogues gallery. Here I am reading the comic, and you've got Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Lizard, even guys like Kraven; and then guys like Venom and Carnage who came later that wouldn't have been around for that show, but were still awesome; yet he never fought any of them. Imagine a Spider-man TV series now where they had the whole crew. That would be amazing. If they could make a successful TV series out of the Green Arrow, Spider-man would be a cinch. Stop with these blockbuster movies that keep covering the same ground and just cycle in new baddies, and do something big. If they streamed a series like that on Disney+ I'd totally break down and get a subscription, and I hate Disney and what they're doing to the film industry. It doesn't take much for me to go back on my principles.
That felt like the final paragraph rant there, so with a couple more to go it's good to reel myself in--though could you imagine Williamson as J. Jonah Jameson in that TV series I just described? Anyway, when we looked at the first Black Cobra, we talked about how it was a take on Stallone's Cobra. This one felt like it had more Lethal Weapon notes in it, but with Williamson being the Mel Gibson character in his own style--the same way he was the Stallone character in his own style in the first one. That's what I think makes Williamson so great, he can take a movie that is borrowing/ripping off elements from established big hits, and instead of making it feel crass like that, he makes it like he's doing a cover version. And his covers are better than the originals to me, which is what I love.
Finally, what Philippine production would be complete without Mike Monty. I've never tagged him before, but maybe I need to start, because he pops up in so many of these movies, and we do so many of them on the site. When I see Monty in a Philippine production from the late 80s/early 90s, it's like hearing the opening chords to an old song I love, or tasting the first bites of my favorite comfort food dish, there's like an "ahhh" feeling, like life is good and as it should be. Here's to you Mike Monty, you were one of the great ones.
And with that, let's wrap this one up. You can get this on Prime right now, and it's worth it. This is the Williamson you came for. It's good, and it doesn't stop being good until the credits roll. Skip that Bruce Willis mid-2010s Michigan-shot slog you have in your queue, and watch this instead. Your soul will thank you.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0238080
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