If I were to change my current modus operandi to focusing on movies released on streaming services in addition to the ones that come out in theaters, how much would that take away from viewing older films?  I am thinking out loud because I have yet to get a handle on the premier schedule for companies like Amazon Prime, Apple TV, or Netflix.  When I go to the cinema, I can be assured that I will see trailers for upcoming productions to debut in a similar venue.  I feel like the previews that I consume for their home theater cousins are random, or I am forced to see them whenever I log on to the service.  That is how I found Deep Cover (2025), and it is good, which makes me wonder if I am missing out on other quality motion pictures.  While I devise a plan for this, please enjoy this review as much as I did watching it.

What you are watching at the beginning of Deep Cover is a violent chase through London streets between Albanian drug traffickers and the English constabulary.  On the fringes of this chaos are our three primary characters.  The first we meet is the unassuming, awkward, and shy information technology specialist Hugh (Nick Mohammed).  He desperately wants to fit in with his office co-workers, but his disastrous attempts have caused his bosses to order him to mind his own business.  Next is the perpetually unemployed actor Marlon (Orlando Bloom).  His evaluation of his talents far exceeds the results, an assessment skewed by his appearance in a series of commercials for frozen pizza.  He cannot turn off his acting even when his agent tells him it is over.  Nonetheless, he continues to go to the improv classes taught by struggling comedienne Kat (Bryce Dallas Howard).  She, too, has been trying to make it in showbusiness, but ended up in London after a few lousy parts.  With her work visa about to expire, her friends are wondering if she needs to give up on comedy.  She is not ready to do so, which means sticking with teaching for the moment.  This brings her into contact with Hugh, who sees a flyer about a class that can help him build his confidence.  It is Kat’s improv group, and she welcomes him in despite his halting manner.  Later that night, it is Kat’s turn to perform on stage, and in the audience is Sergeant Billings (Sean Bean) of Scotland Yard.  After her act, he approaches Kat and asks if she would be willing to get two other improv actors to join her in an undercover mission on behalf of London’s finest.  To sweeten the deal, adds that there will be £200 payment for each one involved.  To Kat, this is paid work, so she agrees to find the others.  Her first choices are two of her female students, but they come to her soon thereafter to inform her that they got gigs, for which Kat is slightly jealous.  Thus, she turns to Hugh and Marlon.  Predictably, Marlon takes it too seriously, while Hugh is simultaneously happy to be included and nervous about the prospect of doing such work.  Still, £200 is £200.  The plan is for them to go into a convenience store and ask the clerk for special cigarettes that Sergeant Billings tells them are laced with narcotics.  They get more than they bargain for when Marlon goes too far with his invented character, and they are asked to meet with the local man in charge, Fly (Paddy Considine).  Not being one to break with her role, Kat goes along with it, siding with Fly when the Albanians from earlier try to claim that the cocaine they are there to buy is their own.  Still, in order to test these three new players, Fly has them go to an aging hitman named Sagar (Omar Djalili) to shake him down for money owed to Fly.  Already, things have gotten out of hand, but Sergeant Billings keeps encouraging them, claiming they are doing good for the city.  The meeting with Sagar goes spectacularly wrong when he runs outside and is ran over by a van, but at least they get the money for Fly and his trust.  The death prompts a separate investigation from Detective Inspector Dawes (Ben Ashenden) and Sergeant Beverley (Alexander Owen).  Through various surveillance footage, they quickly find Hugh, Kat, and Marlon’s images, but are unsure as to their identities.  Things are also getting more pressure-filled for our three actors in the criminal underworld.  When Fly is summoned to meet with his boss, Metcalfe (Ian MacShane), it is to inform the underling that a deal has been struck with the Albanians, who want their cocaine returned.  Because Metcalfe is unfamiliar with Hugh, Kat, and Marlon, he demands that they obtain it for him.  This leads them further into the underworld, this time to another gang led by K-Lash (Nneka Okoye).  She easily sniffs out the three amateurs, prompting an intervention by Sergeant Billings.  However, it becomes apparent that he is crooked, using the three unsuspecting performers to get rich off the gangsters.  Before he can say anymore, he is shot and killed by Shosh (Sonoya Mizuno), Fly’s assistant who has developed a thing for Hugh.  She also takes Sergeant Billings phone, which would prove that there is a mole inside Fly’s organization.  Upon ordering Hugh, Kat, and Marlon to cut up Sergeant Billings body, the three try to sneak into one of Metcalfe’s business fronts to get back the mobile, but it turns into a trap.  Because they had been Fly’s people, Metcalfe commands Fly to kill the three.  He is about to do so, but instead lets them go, telling them to never again show their faces in London.  Before that can happen, they are arrested by Detective Inspector Dawes and Sergeant Beverley, and are able to finally tell their story.  In order to avoid going to prison, they are made to help the police arrest the members of this drug ring.  To do so, they convince Fly to be a part of their scheme and wear a wire.  There are some hiccups, but it seems to work out for everyone involved, and they are able to go back to normal lives.

Normal, however, is not necessarily a part of Deep Cover’s vocabulary.  It gets most bizarre when they are asked to dismember a corpse, and between that and the language, the movie’s R rating is well earned.  As strange as this might sound given that context, the film is quite funny.  If it were played seriously, you could pity these people.  Maybe they should have known better, but they were clearly manipulated into a life-or-death situation.  It is not necessarily acceptable to sin to save one’s life, which is why the Catholic Church has so many martyrs.  However, this movie is not about heroic virtue.  A Catholic point can be awarded to Fly, who does not assent to murdering people he had come to admire.  That more approximates heroic virtue since he risks life and/or limb by not carrying out Metcalfe’s demands.  He even makes a somewhat touching speech in the process, saying that he may be a crook, but he is not villain.  He does this because he has a daughter, and that is the shred of a connection he has to a legitimate world.  In other words, his criminal ways are an act that he does for a job.  It is not too dissimilar to what Hugh, Kat, and Marlon are doing.  Marlon says it best when he tells his agent that he is an actor, and can thus be anything.  Kat has a different take.  For her, improv is about being in the moment.  Tangentially, this can be applied to prayer.  I am guilty of often losing myself in thought while, for example, praying the Rosary.  I can be in the middle of a decade, but my mind is on anything else but the mystery, my mouth moving robotically with the rhythm of the Hail Maries.  However, the moment is supposed to be with God, and by staying in it, you can more effectively communicate with the Divine.  Improv, is about connecting with your partner, but the concept can be considered to be roughly parallel.

Yes, that is a rough way of looking at an irreverent movie like Deep Cover.  There are some questionable moments in it, but it is also entertaining.  It is the ideal film to put on for mom and dad that is not too raunchy or violent.  I say go for it.