“Deep Cover” is one of the more underrated films of the year so far. Quietly released in mid-June on Amazon’s Prime Video, the British action comedy follows a trio of improv actors (Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom and “Ted Lasso” star Nick Mohammed) who are recruited by the police to go undercover and infiltrate a dangerous criminal gang. “Deep Cover” has a lot of fun stretching its absurd premise as far as it can go. It is charming, light on its feet and deserving of more publicity and promotion than it has so far received.
If you are one of the viewers who has been charmed by it, here are seven movies like “Deep Cover” that you should watch next.
“Game Night” (2018)
One of the best comedies of the past decade, “Game Night” has everything you could want from a comedy about a group of people who — much like the ill-equipped actors in “Deep Cover” — wade into a situation that they are completely out of their depth to deal with. Anchored by two, career-best comedic performances from Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman and featuring a scene-stealing supporting turn for the ages from Jesse Plemons, the film follows a group of friends whose routine game night is upended by an actual criminal conspiracy.
“Game Night” is clever, quotable and about as much fun as you could want a mainstream American film like it to be. Few movies make big-screen comedy feel as rewarding or effortless.
“Miss Congeniality” (2000)
A classic early aughts comedy, “Miss Congeniality” has all the humor and absurdity of “Deep Cover,” but it is less slick and stylistic. It, fortunately, makes up for that with heaping amounts of the one thing that “Deep Cover” lacks — star power. Sandra Bullock gives one of the defining performances of her early career in the film as a no-nonsense FBI agent who is forced to go undercover as a contestant in the Miss United States beauty pageant after a terrorist threatens to bomb the competition.
The film is absurd, but it is also delightfully light on its feet and elevated by a cast of actors who all find the right levels of silliness and good-hearted humor in their performances. It is also, of course, held together at all times by Bullock, an actress who has always been uniquely gifted at pulling off the lightly screwball kind of comedy that a film like “Miss Congeniality” demands.
“21 Jump Street” (2012)
2012’s “21 Jump Street” is one of the films that helped put directing duo Phil Lord and Chris Miller on the map. A feature film adaptation of the late ’80s TV series of the same name, “21 Jump Street” follows a pair of adult police officers (Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill) who are forced to go undercover as high school students in order to find the source of a new, dangerous synthetic drug.
The resulting film is a screwball comedy infused with breakneck energy, modern editing tricks and some of the most energetic filmmaking of Lord and Miller’s careers to date. Tatum and Hill lead a pitch-perfect ensemble cast with two hilarious, likable performances as a pair of longtime friends who discover — much to their shared surprise — that retracing your footsteps is an unrivaled way to learn just how fast and rapidly the world tends to change.
“Charlie’s Angels” (2000)
A zero-calorie, sugary blast of pure cinematic confection, 2000s “Charlie’s Angels” is, like “21 Jump Street,” a feature film riff on a popular TV show of the same name. It follows three women (Cameron Diaz, Lucy Liu and Drew Barrymore) who work for a private detective agency and are assigned to rescue a kidnapped software company CEO (Sam Rockwell).
The mission does not turn out to be what the trio expected, and the three women are forced to constantly adapt to the numerous betrayals and left turns that are thrown at them along the way. “Charlie’s Angels” is more high-concept than “Deep Cover” and it does not have nearly as important of an undercover element as that film, but if you’re looking for an action comedy that lives in the same tongue-in-cheek, humorous space as “Deep Cover,” then look no further.
“Hit Man” (2024)
Like “Deep Cover,” writer-director Richard Linklater’s romantic crime comedy “Hit Man” is as much an exploration of identity and acting as it is a straightforward genre thriller. Based loosely on a true story, the film follows a mild-mannered psychology professor (Glen Powell) whose work with a local police department leads to him repeatedly posing as different, fake hit men as part of an ongoing sting operation to catch and arrest potential criminals.
When he crosses paths with a desperate, abused woman (Adria Arjona), Powell’s Gary fully assumes one of his false identities in order to help her. What follows is a romantic, surprisingly sexy story of deceit, love and transformation. “Hit Man” is a light, bubbly film about finding out who you really are while pretending to be someone else, which makes it a perfect movie to pair with “Deep Cover.”
“The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” (2022)
You likely will not find a movie more similar to “Deep Cover” than “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.” This 2022 action comedy follows a fictional version of Nicolas Cage (played by the man himself), recruited by the CIA to investigate the billionaire fanboy (Pedro Pascal) whose birthday he had previously been invited to attend. Cage’s mission is complicated by his friendship with Pascal’s Javi, which grows quickly in a film that has all the action and comedy that fans of “Deep Cover” could possibly want.
“The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” did not completely live up to critics’ expectations when it was originally released, but the past few years have been kind to it. Like “Deep Cover,” it is an immensely charming crime comedy, one buoyed by the charisma and chemistry of its stars.
“To Be or Not to Be” (1942)
One of the greatest films made by early cinema auteur and skilled humorist Ernst Lubitsch, “To Be or Not to Be” was released just a few months after America joined the global conflict of World War II. It follows a troupe of actors in Nazi-occupied Warsaw who get caught up in an undercover Polish resistance effort and are consequently forced to use their thespian skills to fool the invading Nazi soldiers and leaders.
Portraying the Nazis as brutish fools, “To Be or Not to Be” is a blackly comic, endlessly clever comedic thriller. Featuring two iconic star performances from Carole Lombard and Jack Benny, this Golden Age classic is a timeless comedy about resistance, solidarity and simple, good old-fashioned human cleverness.
