June 27, 2025

NOVOCAINE is Painless Fun


NOVOCAINE (4K UHD)
2025 / 109 min
Review by Stinky the Destroyer😺

At the movies, Jack Quaid has had a pretty damn good year. First was Companion, a terrific sci-fi thriller where he’s deliciously hateful. Then in Novocaine, he’s an unlikely action hero with an unusual condition that ultimately gives him an advantage over numerous antagonists. 

Introverted, socially awkward assistant bank manager Nathan Caine suffers from a disorder that prevents him from feeling any physical pain, so he goes to great measures to assure he doesn’t unknowingly injure himself. However, when he falls for bank teller Sherry Margrave (Amber Midthunder), she sort-of brings him out of his shell, encouraging him to try new things. The first act does a fine job getting the viewer invested in both of them.


The next day, their bank is robbed by a crew led by violent, psychotic Simon Greenly (Ray Nicholson). They shoot their way out and take Sherry hostage. With all the surrounding cops dead or injured, Nathan jumps into one of the police cars to go after them and try to save Sherry. That’s the basic set-up for the premise, where Nathan’s inability to feel pain becomes kind of a superpower, even though he’s unskilled at physical conflict and can still be wounded...maybe fatally. 


"YAHTZEE!"
Though Novocaine unfolds like a standard action thriller with relatively few narrative surprises (save for a revelation about one major character that I didn’t see coming), what makes it so damn entertaining is Nathan’s condition. While hunting these guys down one by one (and being pursued by police, who think he’s an accomplice), he’s repeatedly subjected to a variety of gruesome injuries, some of which are wince-inducing. What makes much of the graphic violence genuinely funny is Quaid’s likable performance and his character's reaction to it (as well as the violence he inflicts on others). 

But Novocaine isn’t a one-joke movie, nor is all the violence played for laughs. It’s not-so-much a comedy as an action film that happens to be funny, clever and features engaging characters. In fact, the story itself is the least interesting aspect, more or less playing out exactly how you’d expect. The best part is Jack Quaid, who’s really on a roll lately.


EXTRA KIBBLES

4K, BLU-RAY & DIGITAL COPIES

FEATURETTES - Prepare for Pain: Pre-Production; A World of Hurt: Production; Maximum Physical Damage: Makeup Effects. The titles tell all for these entertaining behind-the-scenes segments.


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