David Farnor | On 06, Jul 2025

Director: Tom Kingsley
Cast: Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom, Nick Mohammed, Paddy Considine, Sean Bean
Certificate: 15

“Improv comedy is like going into battle. If you want to kill, you have to be willing to die.” These are the wonderfully self-important words that begin Deep Cover, Amazon’s action comedy about three improv comedians who go undercover for the cops. The words both set the level of seriousness with which the trio take themselves and the stakes of the absurd scenario they find themselves in.

Bryce Dallas Howard plays Kat, a frustratingly unsuccessful actor who pours her disappointment into teaching improv to younger, less jaded performers. Her big break doesn’t come in the way she expects: she’s approached by Billings (an enjoyably gruff Sean Bean) to go undercover for the police and infiltrate a drug gang. She brings with her the only two improv students within her vicinity: Marion (Orlando Bloom), a wannabe Al Pacino whose most successful role is an advert in which he plays the “Pizza Knight”, and Hugh (Nick Mohammed), an IT guy from a finance firm who is looking for any way to be less of an overlooked doormat.

The result is as ridiculous as it is ridiculously entertaining – there’s never a doubt in anyone’s minds that this a terrible idea. Except, of course, our lead trio. The whole thing works because they take it so seriously, and their performances are pitched beautifully between painful tragedy and cringe-inducing excitement. Bryce Dallas Howard is excellent at toggling between unconvincing tough-talking and equally unconvincing socialite chatter, as she tries to fit in with middle-class friends who pity her lack of success. Orlando Bloom is clearly relishing the opportunity to send himself up as Marion, a would-be Al Pacino, who immediately jumps to war-torn PTSD when trying to invent a character’s backstory. Nick Mohammed is perfectly cast as the timid Hugh, who can’t keep up with office banter let alone act off the cuff – the hysterical spectacle of him doing cocaine is worth tuning in for alone.

The three are a tightly knit ensemble of straight-faced implausibility, which gives everyone else around them the opportunity to have a little fun. Paddy Considine is wonderfully over-the-top as gangster-with-a-heart Fly, while sketch comedy duo The Pin – Ben Ashenden and Alexander Owen – steal any scene going as two British cops, one competent and professional, the other entirely clueless.

It’s a real treat to see The Pin – two of the best comedy writing minds in the UK right now – on the big screen, not just in the kind of cameo roles they’ve enjoyed in recent Hollywood pictures – Jurassic World Dominion and The Bubble – but penning the script too. Initially starting as an idea from Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly, The Pin make it their own with a sharp screenplay that doesn’t hang about and keeps jumping from one increasingly absurd scenario to the next – a constant string of “yes, and” one-upmanship that builds chaotic, freewheeling momentum.

At the helm is Tom Kingsley, who has gone from Black Pond and Pls Like to Ghosts, This Is Going to Hurt and Doctor Who. His knack for physical, practical comedy has only gotten sharper, and he keeps the silliness grounded in its London location – right down to trying to use a bike for body disposal. Clocking in at a tight 100 minutes, with room to spare for the odd plot twist, Deep Cover is a brilliant example of committing to the bit – patiently waiting until the final act for it to pay off in a killer line from Ian McShane. It’s a British comedy that confidently goes into battle – and doesn’t die on its feet.

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