Even with the subtitle to this review, I’m not sure it’s possible to be fully prepared for the sheer number of haphazard and clunky twists in R. Ajay Gnanamuthu’s Cobra, a globe-trotting spy movie about a genius mathematician turned into an unwitting heterodox assassin (Madiazhagan “Madhi,” played by Vikram). 

In addition to the Tamil language superstar of Vikram, a computer genius keeps cover under the not-so subtle guise of “Cobra,” trying to alert Interpol of the elusive assassin’s next target. Bhavana Menon (Srinidhi Shetty) and Jennifer Rosario (played by former TikTok star Mirnalini Ravi) both play interchangeable female love interests with very little to do but look pretty. And the cricketer Irfan Pathan makes his cinematic debut as Aslan Yilmaz, a Turkish Interpol agent whose given name means “lion” and whose surname sounds almost identical to “yılmaz,” meaning “indomitable”—do with that what you will… 

As a goofier Mission Impossible with less interesting set pieces, the first half of Cobra mostly works. 

Continue reading at the Boston Hassle.