I am always careful with the term ‘action comedy’ because for each Kiss Kiss Bang Bang or Hot fuzz There is one Stop! Or my mother will shoot. It’s a tough genre to do well, but it seems Tom Kingsley has cracked it: the new prime video movie he has directed, Deep coveragegets rave reviews.
Deep coverage Stars Bryce Dallas Howard as a cat who learns improv comedy and begins to believe she has missed her great chance of becoming a comedy star. But then she encounters an undercover policeman played by Sean Bean, and he wants her to play the role of a lifetime with two of her students, Orlando Bloom and Nick Mohammed. But this is not a role on stage or on screen. Kat and her students will infiltrate London’s gangland by pretending to be dangerous criminals.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the resulting movie is “relentlessly silly” – and it’s meant as a compliment.
What do the critics say about deep coverage?
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Deep coverage Currently at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 22 critics (it had debuted at the SXSW London Screen Festival earlier this month), making it one of the best prime video films. And consensus is that it is not exactly high art, but it is very entertaining.
Empire Magazine gave the movie four out of five stars comparing Sean Bean’s cop with Jackson Lamb from Slow horses; To say that it is “well constructed, commits to bites in the gag department, while delivering clear setups and payments for its central grades-a comedy, which in addition to class-A fabrics and body bags is about how Improv gives three lonely losers a new lease on life”.
“It’s one of the most surprisingly funny films of the year,” Ebert.com says, giving the movie three out of four stars. The role crew “is great from top to bottom and leans into their personas on screen in a way that holds all this, admittedly clumsy film together. It turns out you can accept a lot of silly plot as long as you laugh.”
“Amazon’s High-Concept Action Comedy Deep Cover may be easy on narrative escalation, but it has lots of laughs and a fantastic trio of head actors,” says Screen Rant. And Ready Steady Cut said that “It’s almost perfect popcorn entertainment, an action comedy with okay action and really fun comedy that puts its all-star-role crew to work on playing excessive pastiches of their usual screen characters.”
What do viewers say about deep coverage?
There are not enough audience reviews to fire popcomretes to generate a score, but the viewers have a tendency for four and five stars.
Nick M loved gags but felt the crime could be better – “If the crime aspect was as good as the comedy, it would be one of the best in the last few years,” he said, while Micki K gave it the ultimate compliment: “I actually put my phone down to see it.”
Many of the viewers repeated the critics by pointing out Orlando Bloom for special praise – “All the characters are perfect role crews,” says Scott F, and “Orlando Bloom is particularly funny” – as well as noting that how much you enjoy the movie partly depends on what you expect from it.
“This is a fun trip!” Says Samantha U. “Take it to what it is – entertaining. It’s not an artistic film work but man alive, I really appreciate this trait. The action was great. Writing was smart. The characters were lovable. It wasn’t 4 hours like any other movie right now.” For Samantha it took her back “to a simpler time when movies were just fun.”
Deep coverage Streaming now on Prime Video.
