Review of the new action comedy starring Orlando Bloom, Nick Mohammed and Bryce Dallas Howard

There’s a kernel of plausibility to the ridiculous premise behind the new British action comedy Deep Cover. Would it not make some sort of sense for the police to recruit improv performers to undertake low-level undercover work, given how they are taught to immerse themselves in a scene and go with the flow?

The trio recruited by Sean Bean’s gnarled copper Billings after a gig are not exactly the crème de la crème, mind. Nick Mohammed’s socially inept Hugh is a rookie, signing up only to find some much-needed confidence and never quite knowing what  he’s doing; Orlando Bloom’s Marlon is exercising his thespian muscles in the pursuit of his highfalutin actorly ambitions; and Bryce Dallas Howard’s Kat is a competent improv tutor, but dogged by the thought this wasn’t exactly how she wanted her life or career to pan out as her friends accelerate through corporate milestones.

They are not the best advert for the top-flight improv actually on offer at London’s Comedy Store – whose real exterior is used to set up scenes set in a more low-key performance venue – but they are as decent a band of misfits as the gags demand. Initially tasked with seeing if a corner shop is selling fake fags, they soon find themselves at the heart of the capital’s gangland underworld, embroiled in drug deals and brutal violence. ‘That escalated quickly,’ barely covers it.

There are some digs at the improv scene, with Billings holding the fact that trio are such losers over them. ‘How many rejections have you faced?’ he asks them, dangling the idea of recognition as the carrot for joining his sting operation.

Unsurprisingly, given his pedigree, Mohammed is the comic lodestone, with his FISH being so far out of water he might as well be skydiving. Seeing his ineffective, mild-mannered beta-male snort cocaine for the first time in front of Paddy Considine's drug kingpin Fly is the stand-out scene of the whole movie.

But Bloom also shows a knack for comedy he’s rarely allowed to flaunt on screen, sending both himself and luvvie pretensions up marvellously. Jurassic World’s Dallas Howard is more of the straightwoman, but even she has her comic moments, notably when she’s in ‘character’ as a hard-living criminal and runs in to the very basic women who comprise her friendship group.

The Pin comedy duo of Ben Ashenden and Alexander Owen wrote the script (from an original premise from producer Colin Trevorrow and his frequent collaborator Derek Connolly), and also gave their police detective characters some of the best lines, notably Owen, as the naive rookie Beverley, quoting genre clichés to the chagrin of his partner.

They do a solid job of balancing the comedy with the action, though their strength is undeniably in the former, and the film does lose comic momentum as it strives to tie up all the dramatic ends towards its payoff. But there’s always plenty going on, driven by a chaotic energy, and plenty of laughs, which almost always come from a surprising direction. 

Deep Cover plays best when it sticks closest to its modest British sensibilities than leaning into any aspirations of being a big action blockbuster… as well you might expect from a film helmed by the man who directed Stath Lets Flats and Ghosts. Tom Kingsley has largely turned his modest budget into an advantage, from using real-life locations to provide authenticity to eschewing the normal car chase scenes in favour of a pursuit involving hire bikes, which is empirically much funnier.

Look out too for a load of familiar comedy faces in the supporting cast, including Sophie Duker, Ania Magliano, Katy Wix, Ahih Shah, Freya Parker and Omid Djalili, as a shady figure our trio are ordered to put the frighteners on. 

Sure enough, however, by saying ‘yes and…’ to these extreme, ever-intensifying experiences, the gang get to discover themselves and get their resolutions. Maybe it’s not such a bad advert for improv after all…

• Deep Cover arrives on Amazon’s Prime Video tomorrow.

Review date: 11 Jun 2025
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett