Cobra Slithers Back Into Brookings Cinema 8 for a 40th Anniversary Run

If you've noticed “Cobra” showing up on the marquee at Brookings Cinema 8 this month and thought you'd stumbled into a time warp, you're not wrong to be confused. This is not a reboot, not a sequel, not some algorithm-generated remake with a new cast. This is the 1986 Sylvester Stallone original, dusted off and put back on a local screen for a 40th anniversary theatrical run starting August 13. For anyone in Brookings who grew up renting this thing on VHS from a shop that no longer exists, or who has simply heard people quote “You're a disease, and I'm the cure” without knowing where it came from, this is your chance to see it the way it was meant to be seen, on a big screen, with a tub of popcorn instead of a remote control.

The real story here isn't really the plot. It's the fact that a nearly four-decade-old B-movie is getting a theatrical berth at all in a town the size of Brookings. Cinema 8 doesn't program revival nights lightly, and the choice says something about how “Cobra” has aged in the cultural memory: not as a masterpiece, but as a genuine artifact of a very specific moment in action cinema, when Stallone was riding the “Rambo” wave and Hollywood was cranking out cop movies with mirrored sunglasses and one-liners instead of character arcs. Whether that's a reason to celebrate or a reason to raise an eyebrow depends entirely on what you want from two hours at the movies.

For those who need the refresher: “Cobra” follows Los Angeles police Lieutenant Marion “Cobretti,” nicknamed Cobra, as he investigates a string of violent crimes tied to a cult-like group of killers. Along the way he ends up protecting Ingrid Knudsen, a witness the killers are determined to silence. That's essentially it. No twist-heavy plot, no slow-burn mystery. It's a chase, a threat, and a guy in a toothpick and leather jacket standing between them.

Now for the part where I actually tell you what I think, because a recommendation that refuses to commit isn't worth reading. The real critical record on “Cobra” is not kind, and it hasn't softened with age. Rotten Tomatoes lists the film at a blunt 17 percent, with an average score of 3.4 out of 10, and Metacritic pins it at 25 out of 100. Those numbers agree with each other in a way that doesn't leave much wiggle room. This isn't a case of one aggregator loving it while another shrugs. Both paint the same picture: a movie that critics found thin, mechanical, and more interested in mood than in story.

And honestly, having sat with the film again ahead of this run, I think that judgment holds up. “Cobra” is at its best when it leans fully into its own silliness, all synth score and slow-motion sunglasses removal, and at its worst when it seems to think it's saying something serious about crime and justice. It never quite decides which movie it wants to be, and the dialogue does the plot no favors. But there's a difference between a bad movie and a movie that's fun to watch with an audience that already knows what it's getting into, and Brookings Cinema 8 on a Tuesday five-dollar ticket night is exactly the low-stakes environment where that difference matters.

So here's my actual verdict: don't go expecting a good movie, because by any honest critical measure it isn't one. Go if you want a nostalgic, campy night out, ideally on Tuesday when the five-dollar tickets make the whole experiment cheap enough to laugh off if it doesn't land. Sink into the expanded-legroom seats, treat it like a time capsule rather than a masterpiece, and you'll probably have a better time than the numbers suggest you should.

Facts verified as of September 30, 2026.