CURE FOR THE CRITICS?

By the looks of those heavy-artillery TV spots for Sly Stallone’s cop movie “Cobra”--and reports surfacing that Warner Bros. had to make trims to get an R rating--the Big Guy’s latest action-adventure isn’t going to warm heartstrings.

The studio denied any such trims, but it’s keeping very hush about the picture’s release this week to more than 2,000 theaters. Critics had to phone the studio PR department to inquire whether one of those 2,000 prints was available for screenings, which, as of press time, hadn’t been scheduled. (Hollywood’s prevailing wisdom is that when a studio doesn’t want to show the critics a film, it’s because they aren’t looking forward to the reviews.)

Is the film’s supposed violence why Warners is so shy? Responded a PR exec: “ You’re saying there’s a reservation about press screenings--I’m not. We just haven’t determined, at this point, if there’s going to be one.”

The public, however, does get an early look: round-the-clock “Cobra” showings at Mann’s Chinese Theater begin Thursday night at 10 and run every two hours through noon the next day--a ritual also planned for New York and Chicago.

So what kind of person would show for a 4 a.m. Stallone fix?

Deadpanned the Warners rep: “I’m sure they’ll be fun.”