Deep Cover is Amazon’s new high-concept action comedy about three improv actors hired by Sean Bean’s grizzled cop to execute an undercover sting operation.
It goes wrong, or right, because before you know it, the trio are deeply involved in London’s criminal underworld, working for Paddy Considine’s drug lord. Staying in character may be their only way out alive.
It starts promisingly. The opening act efficiently establishes the three lead characters and gets you on their side. Bryce Dallas Howard plays Kat, an improv teacher and failed actor. She’s great in this, and an early scene with her successful, settled friends makes you root for her.
Orlando Bloom plays Orlando Bloom if he hadn’t lucked into The Lord of the Rings at 21 years old. He’s Marlon, a struggling method actor who fancies himself as Daniel Day-Lewis, but nobody is buying it because he’s from the Cotswolds and his real name is Tristan.
He’s probably the best thing about Deep Cover.
Nick Mohammed plays Nick Mohammed. Sorry, he plays Hugh, but it’s the same role he played in Ted Lasso and everything else I’ve seen him in – a shy, socially awkward nerd who will almost certainly discover his confidence at some point. It’s his niche, and he does it well, but it becomes tiresome at times.
The supporting cast is solid. Sean Bean and Paddy Considine is joined by Sonoya Mizuno and Ian McShane. Ian McShane mangles a Scottish accent so badly he’s going to have to hand his surname back as reparations.
Orlando Bloom’s Manchester accent is also substandard, but it’s not his character’s actual accent – he only puts on for the undercover role he’s playing. I don’t think it’s meant to be bad, but it works because it highlights how ridiculous Marlon is. Task failed successfully.
Promise Unfulfilled
Early undercover scenes, featuring Hugh being forced to sample line after line of cocaine, and a showdown with an ex-assassin, are both tense and funny while remaining believable.
And that’s the key to success for movies like this: maintaining the humour while establishing real stakes. There have to be consequences if their cover is blown or if the police catch up to them.
There’s a good twist thrown in at the midway point, but the movie struggles to build upon that early momentum. It’s not long before plot conveniences emerge and Deep Cover becomes increasingly predictable and far-fetched.
The two policemen working the case are straight out of a Naked Gun movie and played purely for laughs (and portrayed by two of the co-writers, so they have no excuse). They would have been better as straight characters, grounding the movie as the craziness unfolds around them.
My other criticism is that Deep Cover doesn’t push its ideas far enough. Why not have Marlon go completely method and lose himself entirely? Why not have some romance? Is it illegal now? A brief flirtation between Hugh and Sonoya Mizuno’s Shosh goes nowhere, and neither Marlon nor Kat appears to recognise the other as a sexual possibility, despite them both being hot.
Other scenes represent good ideas not executed to their full potential, such as Marlon’s made-up backstory speech and a scene where Kat receives an intervention from her friends and family. Deep Cover threatens to go dark at certain points and may have benefited from fully embracing it.
At the end, Hugh and Marlon experience some character growth ,but Kat is basically in the same place, with no resolution to the relationships she trashes during the movie. It makes me wonder what it was all about.
Content With Content?
I don’t want to get too down on this movie because the cast is good and the chemistry between the mismatched leads keeps Deep Cover bouncing along nicely.
It’s a solid concept, and you’ll be entertained if you don’t think too hard about it. But with such potential, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with expecting more.
Which begs the question: do streamers strive for excellence, or are they happy with their product being good enough? Are they content with content? If so, they’ve absolutely nailed it with this one.
