Deep Cover (dir. Tom Kingsley)

by Jack Martin | Jun 12, 2025

Certificate: 15

Running Time: 99 mins

UK Distributor: Prime Video

UK Release Date: 12 June 2025

WHO’S IN DEEP COVER?

Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom, Nick Mohammad, Ian McShane, Paddy Considine, Sean Bean, Sonoya Mizuno, Ben Ashenden, Alexander Owen

WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?

Tom Kingsley (director), Colin Trevorrow (writer, producer), Ben Ashenden, Derek Connolly and Alexander Owen (writers), Laurie MacDonald and Walter F. Parkes (producers), Daniel Pemberton (composer), Will Hanke (cinematographer), Mark Williams (editor)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

A group of improv actors are recruited for an undercover sting…

WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON DEEP COVER?

Last year, Richard Linklater’s Hit Man – a brilliant comedy about a lowly guy transforming himself into the world’s greatest (fake) assassin through pure improv – was unceremoniously dumped onto Netflix, despite universal praise from critics and audiences who collectively agreed that it was best experienced on the big screen [if you want more on why, click here to watch/listen to my podcast episode on the movie with special guest Mathew Buck].

Now, just over a year later, we have another crime/comedy mashup also involving improvisation that is, once again, skipping cinemas entirely for an exclusive streaming release. But while Deep Cover isn’t as smart or as satisfying as Hit Man, it’s still a shame that it’s getting pretty much the same treatment, because it’s a pretty good film that, had it been given the chance, could genuinely have worked wonders with a crowd.

The film, from director Tom Kingsley, focuses on three improv actors: Marlon (Orlando Bloom), who perhaps goes a bit too far with his method approach; Hugh (Nick Mohammed), a former banker with no improvisational skills whatsoever; and their teacher Kat (Bryce Dallas Howard), a struggling performer who across her ten-year career hasn’t even come close to her big break. During one of her shows, Kat is approached by police officer Billings (Sean Bean) who is looking for improv actors as part of a sting targeting local crime, and Kat, along with Marlon and Hugh, rather quickly find themselves in the company of Fly (Paddy Considine), a gangster who employs the three as part of his gang. Now, the trio must improvise their way through an increasingly dangerous – and sometimes even deadly – criminal underworld, all without blowing their cover and avoiding the wrath of Fly’s psychotic boss Metcalfe (Ian McShane).

Narratively speaking, Deep Cover operates on a more conventional level than Hit Man ever did, but Kingsley’s film, in a similar way to Linklater’s, is willing to let loose and have some fun with its barmy concept. Kingsley handles the trickly tonal balance with care, ensuring that we can still get some good laughs from the ridiculous lengths that the central trio agree to “yes, and” to when in a number of highly stressful situations, whether it be snorting a few lines of cocaine in front of armed mobsters or threatening an entire gang with a squeaky toy grenade, all while keeping up the act that they’re much harder than they actually are. Inevitably, things leans more toward full-on crime thriller after a certain point, but the comedy aspects remain enjoyable even as things turn surprisingly more gruesome, to where you can get a few legitimate chuckles every now and then without feeling as though it’s become an entirely different movie.

In fact, as a whole, Deep Cover is probably the most enjoyable project in years with the names Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly attached to it. No, this isn’t an improv bit: the respective director and co-writer of the Jurassic World films actually are credited as writers on the original script (with Trevorrow also nabbing a producer’s credit) which was then polished up by comedy duo Ben Ashenden and Alexander Owen, who also appear in the film as police officers tracking down the main characters. You can blatantly tell which bits of the script were added by the latter writers, and not just because they’re present in said scenes, which honestly are among the weaker moments of the film since they feel a bit more tonally detached from everything else that’s going on. But for most of it, it’s easy to spot where Trevorrow and Connolly’s voices are prominent, harking back to their earlier collaborative work on Safety Not Guaranteed as they take a fairly heightened concept and run with it until all possible creative avenues are dried up, and here they manage to do a hell of a lot better with plotting, characterisation, action and beyond than any of their Jurassic World movies (though some things still don’t entirely add up, like a sudden romance plot that comes and goes as though there are entire beats missing from its development).

It’s also a better example of Trevorrow and Connolly utilising Bryce Dallas Howard, for the actor – so often stuck in roles that are honestly beneath her talents – is a great leading presence here, nailing both the comedic and action-heavy sides of her character while also maintaining believability when confronted with psychotic gangsters and, worse still, her group of snobby and judgemental gal pals who not-so-subtly look down on their friend’s chosen profession. But more than Howard and even the ever-delightful Nick Mohammed, Orlando Bloom emerges as the film’s unexpected show-stealer. The one-time Legolas has never been funnier in a role that plays hilariously into his admittedly limited range, with his increasingly nonsensical backstory for his undercover character, not to mention the permanent scowl across his face while sharing such bizarre made-up facts, making for some great comedy as he pokes fun at the self-seriousness of acting, almost to the level of Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder (though no blackface here, thank goodness).

In all, Deep Cover is a fun action-comedy that makes the most of its premise and gets in a few good laughs as well as some rather unnerving crime movie thrills, in ways that would almost certainly get crowds in a frenzy. However, like Hit Man before it, such crowds will sadly never exist, for sitting in the living room and watching it either by yourself or with others just isn’t the same, and between this and Linklater’s similarly improv-heavy crime caper, it sucks that this has become the de facto route for mid-range movies that, whether of high quality or not, deserve their chance with wider movie-going audiences.

SO, TO SUM UP…

Deep Cover is a fun action-comedy that gets as much mileage out of its crazy premise as it can, thanks to a game cast of actors, including a show-stealing Orlando Bloom, and even a script co-written by Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly that, despite occasional conventionality and underdeveloped plotlines, is one of the brighter projects with their name on it in years.