Given the opportunity to work with strangers or friends, chances are “friends” is going to win out every time. Doing so provides a comfortability to do things one might not ordinarily do, or, at the very least, allow one to relax enough to enjoy the experience. Looking over the cast and crew list for director Tom Kingsley’s (Ghosts; The Darkest Universe) Deep Cover, having its international premiere at Tribeca Film Festival 2025 before releasing onto Prime Video, one gets the sense that that’s exactly what happened here. Written by Derek Connolly (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), Colin Trevorrow (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), Ben Ashenden (Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway) and Alexander Owen (Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway) and starring Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), Orlando Bloom (The Outpost), Nick Mohammed (Maggie Moore(s)), and Sean Bean (Possessor) (among others), a pattern emerges of creatives having worked on a series looking to expand their fun by developing something new. Unfortunately, what should be a crime comedy romp with its ridiculous premise and straight-faced delivery often falls flat not because of a rejection of the premise, but a little too much “yes, and…”.
Bryce Dallas Howard as Kat in DEEP COVER. Photo Credit: Peter Mountain. © 2025 COPERTURA PRODUCTIONS LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Looking to crack a big case, London PD Billings (Bean) approaches improv teacher Kat (Howard) about working for the police as an undercover agent. In need of cash, she agrees, but when the students she hoped to convince to join her are booked, Kat reaches out to established student/actor Marlon (Bloom) and new student Hugh (Mohammed) as backup. Things are going smoothly on their first job until Marlon pushes things too far and the trio find themselves in front of known-dealer Fly (Paddy Considine) and his right-hand Shosh (Sonoya Mizuno) right as Fly’s nemesis Skender (Leart Dokle) arrives to settle a score. Having proven their mettle through the experience, Kat and her students find themselves in deep cover on a deeper mission for Billings that may get them all the way to boss Metcalfe (Ian McShane), that is, if local investigators Dawes and Beverley (Ashenden and Owen, respectively) don’t arrest them first.
L-R: Orlando Bloom as Marlon, Bryce Dallas Howard as Kat, and Nick Mohammed as Hugh in DEEP COVER. Photo Credit: Peter Mountain. © 2025 COPERTURA PRODUCTIONS LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
To set expectations, Deep Cover is more in line with The Heat (2013) than 48 Hrs. (1982) in that the script is constantly reaching for jokes instead of coming to them naturally. There’s meat on this script in the way that it incorporates the fish-out-of-water and coming-of-age elements as the three leads each portray characters in need of growing up either by recognizing their weaknesses, by learning to develop confidence, or in acknowledging the value of leadership. When the script focuses on this, enabling the chaos to happen around these three, the film hums along, the insanity a by-product of a heightened reality established by the genre. However, all too often the script goes back to the well, having Hugh be too bookish, Marlon too self-centered, and Kat desperately trying to keep them on task. For instance, the trailer shows a sequence wherein Marlon has brought along a grenade and it’s more than a dud, creating an opportunity to highlight just how short-sighted Marlon is in his quest to be the authentic actor he imagines himself to be, but the revelation that it’s actually a squeaky toy doesn’t elicit laughter because there’s no logic in it to defy. By this moment in the film, Marlon’s demonstrated that he’s so focused on backstory and Acting (capital “A” intentional) that he frequently can’t stay on mission, thereby making a squeaky toy the wrong tool for the job in the moment in order to create “realism.” Now, where would Marlon get a real or dud grenade? No clue, but it makes more sense for him to have found one at a surplus store at some point than to have picked it up a corner store, but this is meant to be comedy. Unfortunately, making things worse are the bumbling antics of Dawes and Beverley, and not just because Beverley won’t stop referencing pop culture police-speak or that he’s a nepo kid. When we are first introduced to Dawes, it’s in a fantastic opening action set piece that establishes stakes and intensity as Dawes chases down Skender via car chase through London, including gunfire. From then on, however, Dawes comes off more as a tv stereotype, delivering lines that one feels should conclude with a Dick Wolf-style DUN-DUN, effectively reducing what is an otherwise competent character brought to life by an actor with solid screen presence.
L-R: Paddy Considine as Fly, Bryce Dallas Howard as Kat, Nick Mohammed as Hugh, and Orlando Bloom as Marlon in DEEP COVER. Photo Credit: Peter Mountain. © 2025 COPERTURA PRODUCTIONS LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
Where the film succeeds is when it leans into the crime genre. Considine (Hot Fuzz; Bourne Ultimatum) and Mizuno (Am I OK?; Men) are fantastic as dealer Fly and right-hand Shosh, he bringing a tenderness to a person starting to feel worn down by the danger of the job and she articulating a fierce loyalty that stands out in a world the script carefully presents as full of traitors. McShane (John Wick series; Kung Fu Panda) is particularly brilliant, giving Metcalfe both gravitas and unpredictability that draws audiences in and makes the characters weak in the bladder. When these three are involved, the scenework often rises to meet them, though that also tends to be when the three leads are improving their way toward survival. In these moments, fleeting as they may be, Howard conveys just how good Kat is (an actor in search of the right stage, perhaps) in the ways in which Howard shifts her entire physical and vocal delivery from Kat into this underground persona, resulting in some unexpected hilarity because of how bad ass it is. This is also where audiences find themselves the most hungry as, in these moments, the film is funny not because the characters are being funny or because of how they react to horrifying situations, but because the setup and delivery pulls out laughter as we know these characters are making it up as they go. In the first scene with Considine’s Fly, Kat completely bullshits her way through a tense situation and the humor comes from us knowing just how full of it she is. When these moments come, Deep Cover is a delight; but, all too frequently, the film tries to be funny (the squeaky grenade, Hugh’s weak constitution, Kat’s external stressors, the London cops) and pulls nothing but silence.
Ian McShane as Metcalfe in DEEP COVER. Photo Credit: Lara Cornell. © 2025 COPERTURA PRODUCTIONS LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
There are films that feel like they would’ve played beautifully in theaters (Predator: Killer of Killers) and then there are some where second-screen seems to be the name of the game. Despite having a fantastic cast and an intriguing premise, Deep Cover rarely delivers on its promise, which just disappoints further. When the film embraces the insanity, it’s a good time, laughter-mining, even. But it so desperately asks for laughter that it forgets to be funny in the process, which is a bummer for everyone.
At least the cast looked like they had fun with their friends.
Screened during Tribeca Film Festival 2025.
Available on Prime Video July 12th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Tribeca Film Festival Deep Cover webpage.
Final Score: 2 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews, streaming
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