Novocaine is a pretty simple movie in its premise; mild-mannered Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) is the assistant manager at a bank in sunny San Diego. He has a crush on bank teller Sherry Margrave (Amber Midthunder) but lacks the confidence to talk to her until chance encounter in the kitchen. After having the best date in his life with her, life comes at Nathan fast as the bank is robbed and she’s taken hostage, and he decides that he’s going to take it upon himself to go and save her from the bank robbers.
Oh yeah, Nathan can’t feel any pain. That’s a key part of this whole concept of the movie. Nathan has Congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP), also known as congenital analgesia, which means he can’t feel any pain and never has felt it. A lot of people who have this condition die while in childhood, but his parents sheltered him pretty well, so he’s alive; he also hasn’t experienced a lot of things based on the fear that he might die because Nathan won’t know if he’s hurt. All that is thrown out of the window once he’s experienced true love for the first time, and he’s willing to put his body on the line and go through any amount of damage to get Sherry back.
This movie is one of the most brutal action comedies I’ve ever seen in my life. Having a main character that essentially runs through the whole movie like a video game character with a cheat code on is something to see. The fight scenes are pretty inventive, with having a character that doesn’t know how to fight much at the beginning and getting tossed around like a crash test dummy to being able to hold his own by the end legitimately works at building that empathy with Nathan and his goal. You want him to find and save Sherry after seeing him stabbed, thrown, shot, and fried to damn near oblivion. Quaid is an excellent golly gee, a good guy with nice, affable qualities. I couldn’t help but think of Superman through most of the movie as he’s the voice of Superman in My Adventures With Superman. He does great with the action scenes he’s in and very much with his facial emotes during this crazy adventure.
It was nice to see Amber Midthunder be a little bit more vulnerable than some of her more recent ones, like in Prey. She’s not entirely a damsel in this film, though; there’s more to Sherry than you think. Ray Nicholson plays Simon Greenly, the head bank robber, and steals the scenes he’s in, and it helps that he has his father’s eyes. He plays a sociopathic thief very well and is believable. He adds the right amount of seriousness and threat to have real stakes to this film. Betty Gabriel and Matt Walsh play San Diego Police Detectives who are investigating the bank robbery and chasing after Nathan. As a comedic vet, Walsh brings some great jokes and comedic timing, and Gabriel does a fantastic job as the straight person to bounce the quips against. They work well following Nathan’s trail of chaos around the city.
Directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen and screenwriter Lars Jacobson crafted up a fun time in the movie theater. I saw this film in my beloved 4DX format, and as I’ve stated in other reviews, it makes movies better, like putting mumbo sauce on fried chicken wings. So, with each bump and bruise, Nathan gets you to feel and brings you even more into the movie. The film moves fast and doesn’t have you feeling bored or that it lags. Novocaine is a good movie and something action fans should enjoy. It is a decent comedy as well. It could be great for a movie date.
Score: B
