Novocaine Review
In many respects, Nate Caine is your average nice guy. He has a 9-to-5 job at a bank and tries his best to help his customers. He also regularly plays video games with his online friend Roscoe. Nate is also looking for love and has yet to find it.
But what makes Nate unusual is that he has a rare genetic disorder that prevents him from feeling pain of any kind. While he can’t feel accidental burns or serious cuts, he also constantly risks seriously hurting himself in everyday activities like simply chewing food. It’s a curse he’s had to live with his entire life.
Things change for Nate when Sherry starts working at the bank. He instantly is smitten with her and when she shows interest in him, the two lost souls quickly form a relationship.
But when Sherry is taken hostage in a violent bank robbery and there is nobody around to save her, Nate takes matters into his own hands. As he pursues the bank robbers across San Diego to save Sherry, his curse of being unable to feel pain becomes his superpower as he attempts to rescue the love of his life.
A big part of what makes Novocaine work is Jack Quaid. He’s a great everyman to whom audiences can relate. Anyone who has seen The Boys knows he’s likable and is at his best when he’s playing a regular guy in extraordinary circumstances. This film plays up to his strengths.
Quaid is really good in the action scenes as well and does an excellent job getting himself beaten to a pulp while shrugging off the pain like Wolverine. But another key aspect of the role of Nate is the romance with Sherry and Quaid sells that well. If you didn’t believe Nate would risk his life to save her, the movie wouldn’t work. Fortunately, Quaid effectively sells that as well.
Jack Quaid is well paired with Amber Midthunder as Sherry. She’s a lot more than a simple damsel in distress and Midthunder handles all aspects of her complex personality well. Sherry hints that she’s had a troubled past which Nate relates to in his own odd way. And while Nate is a puppy dog around this tough girl, you do see her becoming increasingly caring for him and it is believable.
The cast and crew had to make us believe that Nate would risk his life for Sherry in a very short amount of screen time and they do that successfully. The audience roots for these two broken souls to get together. Jacob Batalon is also an MVP of the supporting cast as Roscoe. Like his role in the Spider-Man movies, he provides a lot of sidekick comic relief with his limited screentime.
The action in Novocaine is solid and makes the most of its premise. Nate keeps getting burned, impaled, shot, and battered in creative ways. The stunt coordinators make full use of the sets and props in the action choreography much in the same way Jackie Chan did.
The big difference is the addition of comedic gore. I’ve rarely seen an audience scream and cringe the way they did in Novocaine. This is the kind of film you want to see with a big audience as the screams, groans, and laughs add a lot to the experience of watching it.
Novocaine is built around the gag that Nate keeps getting hurt in horrific ways and feels no pain. While it is one note, they manage to explore almost every aspect of that to the point that it gets played out.
Fortunately, the gag runs out of steam just as the movie ends, so I think they managed to find the right balance. But the creators will definitely be hard-pressed to come up with new ideas for a sequel.
The action and gore are also part of the fun, but there are several times that it gets so gory that it becomes almost horror. It’s a fine line they dance along and sometimes it feels like it goes a little too far.
I’ve seen some reviews claiming this is a romantic movie, yet I think some of the extreme gore would make me not recommend it as a date film (unless your date is really into horror gore). The gore greatly overshadows any romance.
Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, and the creative action scenes make Novocaine a fun film to check out. But the audience reaction will make it a film worth seeing on the big screen. If you haven’t been to the theater in a while, you may want to check it out with as big a crowd as possible.
NOVOCAINE REVIEW RATING: 7 OUT OF 10
Opening in theaters on March 14 and directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, Novocaine is rated R for strong bloody violence, grisly images, and language throughout.
