Sylvester Stallone's director's cut of Rocky IV promises a brand new take on the beloved sequel, but Cobra is also a film that would benefit from a new cut. Rocky IV and Rambo: First Blood Part II were both released in 1985, and marked a career-high for Stallone. Both films were enormously successful at the box office, and are still two of his most popular movies. He never quite reached that height again for the remainder of the decade, with the likes of Over The Top or Rambo III proving to be box-office letdowns.

His follow-up to the dual hits of 1985 was Cobra, a movie where his tough cop protects a witness named Ingrid (Brigitte Nielsen) from a team of serial killers dubbed "The New World." This action thriller was helmed by Rambo 2's George P. Cosmatos, and was Stallone's take on the Dirty Harry movie franchise; to make this nod more obvious, he even cast Dirty Harry co-stars Reni Santoni and Andrew Robinson in key supporting roles. The movie ended up grossing around $160 million worldwide, but despite being a cult favorite now, Stallone didn't return for sequels.

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While Rocky IV is an exciting prospect for followers of the series, it's not the first time he's reworked his films. He edited new versions of both 2008's Rambo and The Expendables, which in both cases involved extending the action while restoring character development scenes. The fourth Rocky adventure was always the glossiest entry in the series - which is both its strength and weakness - so the Rocky IV director's cut might benefit from some more nuance. Cobra also suffered heavy edits prior to its release, with Stallone and the studio cutting it down from two hours to under 90 minutes, resulting in the loss of many scenes and subplots.

Sylvester Stallone with a gun in the back of a truck in Cobra

This was in response to the huge success of Top Gun, which was released shortly before Cobra. Chopping a half-hour out would allow one more screening per day, and Stallone reportedly focused on snipping scenes that didn't really involve his character. Deleted scenes included an eerie sequence where a child delivers a package to the police, which turns out to contain the severed hands of a "New World" victim and additional character development. Gore and violence were also trimmed, including additional civilian murders in the finale, gang members being shot in slow motion and a more brutal demise for villain The Night Slasher.

Lead Sylvester Stallone's slashing of the original cut of Cobra is noticeable in the final edit too, as there are numerous continuity issues or errors. Apparently, a workprint of this unreleased director's cut is still floating around among collectors, and if any Stallone movie could merit a new version, it would be Cobra. Of course, director Cosmatos passed in 2005 and is no longer around to supervise a new edit, though he and Stallone - who also wrote the script - worked closely together on the original, so the star could take those duties. If the Rocky IV director's cut fares well critically and financially, maybe Cobra might get a shot at redemption too.

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