King Cobra (1999, Pat Morita, Scott Hillenbrand, Casey Fallo, Hoyt Axton, Erik Estrada) – Classic Movie Review 6790

Writer-producer-directors David Hillenbrand and Scott Hillenbrand’s absolutely terrible 1999 monster mutated snake movie, with risible special effects and no sense of its total uselessness as a chiller, is just plain bad, where Anaconda was fun bad.

Avoid – you have been warned! – this snake is a turkey. The snake changes size pitifully during sequences: an oven glove would be more convincing as a monster.

Erik Estrada, as a camp stereotype called Bernie Alvarez, makes it seem even worse than it is. Only main star Pat Morita escapes with a tiny bit of dignity intact as Nick Hashimoto, who, after the movie spends ages dithering about, finally hatches a plot to trap the mutated King Cobra that escapes when a biochemical lab explodes.

Playing Mayor Ed Biddle, Hoyt Axton appears in his last film before a fatal heart attack in 1999. His mother was Mae Boren Axton, who wrote Elvis Presley’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel’.

Also in the cast are Scott Hillenbrand [billed as Scott Brandon] as Dr Brad Kagen, Casey Fallo, Joseph Ruskin, Courtney Gains, Erik Estrada, Arell Blanton, Jerry Kernion, Michael Leopard, Nick Jameson, Cedric Duplechain, Paul Morgan Fredrix, Gary Bristow, Lang Yun, Catalina Larranaga, Megan Blake, Michael Elton, Hailey Russo and Scott Boland.

King Cobra is directed by David Hillenbrand and Scott Hillenbrand, runs 93 minutes, is made by Trimark and released by BMG, is written by David Hillenbrand and Scott Hillenbrand, is shot by Philip D Schwartz, is produced by David Hillenbrand and Scott Hillenbrand, is scored by David Hillenbrand, and designed by Jack Cloud.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6790

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