Novocaine is one of those movies I was keeping for moments where I didnt have anything else interesting to watch, I wasn’t expecting much from this one, the trailers made it look like another generic action movie trying too hard to ask for the audience attention, reminds me a lot to Crank with Jason Statham. Jack Quaid plays the role of Nathan Caine, this guy who literally can’t feel pain because of some rare genetic condition called CIP and when his new girlfriend gets kidnapped during a bank robbery he decides to use his weird superpower to go rescue her, lets keep that in mind "new girlfriend", would you go that far??, Im not so sure but thats the romance sprinkle into the story. The whole story sounds ridiculous although its true that there such condition and has to do with gene mutation and nerve signaling and just as on Crank where its totally ridiculous how someone would take high amounts of voltage to keep their heart pumping its the same here but translated into pain to beat up others or jump from a second floor to escape.
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At its core its a sweet romantic comedy between two awkward bank employees that quickly turns into this blood soaked revenge story that had me cringing and laughing at the same time, its an experience now days that go hand by hand and very often at the movies these days. The main character Nathan seems to be living this super careful life where he has tennis balls taped to every corner of his apartment and sets alarms to remind himself to pee because he might not feel his bladder exploding it’s both funny and kind of sad when you really think about the implications and concurrences of his condition. Second but still very important in the story is Amber, who somehow sees through Nathan's awkwardness and likes him for who he really is, their chemistry feels original even though the whole romance happens way too fast to be believable in real life and thats my reference to if you or I would really go that far for your new girlfriend although considering Nathan life it might not be often he has a loving partner. The act that sparks this hole story happens when three guys dressed as Santa Claus rob the bank on Christmas Eve and take Sherry hostage, Nathan fully transforms from this timid assistant manager to basically a one man army, except he’s terrible at fighting and just gets beat up constantly without feeling anything, now that doesnt mean he cant get hurt for real, we talking about not feeling not exactly what turns you into Superman.
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It is expected that the action is what shines on the movie and makes it work besides Nathan's condition so he not knowing how to fight makes it funny too because most of the time he is just grabbing whatever he can find while getting kicked, shot, stabbed and even burned by others. Like in one of the action scenes, during a kitchen fight where he grabs a hot frying pan with his bare hands, that moment right there makes you cringe hard, the guy doesnt even flinch at all and Im just watching through my fingers just like TF THE FINGERS!!!! because it looks so painful its like the movie goes to the extreme to makes you feel for him, its just ridiculous the many times situations like this happen specially when you watch him getting hit by something you are automatically like damn that hurt. I was also impress by how the movie just keep coming up with new ways for him to get hurt and its become this dark weird comedy where you are laughing at violence, now days its common for most people although my taste for comedy its a bit different, but yeah you cant ignore it. Then there is the main villain played by Ray Nicholson named Simon, he’s actually pretty good at being this psychotic bank robber who enjoys torturing people, you can definitely see his craziness in some of his expressions. The movie has this weird tone where it’s trying to be a romantic comedy and an action thriller at the same time, and it doesn’t always work perfectly it’s entertaining enough to keep me interested.
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As an over exagerated action movie with the main character feeling no pain its just obvious that it would be a bit gory and thats another aspect of the movie that is not for everyone, showing every time Nathn gets cut, burn, broken bones or even as I mention above the grabbing the hot pan with bare hands scene, each one of them are very detailed and that's just too much detail that is not for everyone. There were multiple times during the movie that I had to twist in someone else pain, just at watching everything Nathan goes through, he can't feel but for sure you will and now that I think a bit more about it the movie succeed at that, making you as uncomfortable as you can be watching him getting all beat up and constantly suffering. The crew for sure had had a ton of fun with the increasingly ridiculous ways to injure the main character, from getting arrows shot through his leg, his arm bone sticking out and using it as a weapon. Some of the violence feels a bit gratuitous but it’s all in service of this absurd premise, so you kind of have to go along with it or the whole thing falls apart.
The movie is about 110 minutes and for the kind of movie it is, at times feels a bit long and also repetitive so its like as the movie goes on the joke gets older and loose its effect, there are definitely some scenes that could have been trimmed out without loosing the essence. The pacing is mostly good but there are a few moments where it slows down too much, especially during some of the romantic scenes asi it stops the dopamine production from the rest of the action scenes with some of this romantic scenes feeling forced compared to the maniatic energy of the rest of the movie. Jack Quaid really playing Nathan carries the movie on his shoulders the entire time, thats like seen Di Caprio playing Wolf of Wallstreet, Jack manages to make Nathan sympathetic and funny without ever making him feel like a complete joke or a looser to put it on a more simple terms.
Novocaine is one of those movies that shouldn’t work but it just does, it’s completely ridiculous and often hard to watch but it’s also surprisingly entertaining and even touching during certain scenes when you have to feel for Nathan both from the sentimental side and physically. I had very low expectations for this movie and its something different that might fit your taste on movies if you can take all the pain Nathan goes through, its for this reason I gave it a 6.5 almost a 7 out of 10 to be honest, it could be a 7 but its the romance that doesn't fit for me, I would had preffer him been just a ridiculous super hero who feels no pain. Jack Quaid proves he can carry a movie as the leading man and the directors show they know how to some what balance the tone in a way that keeps things from getting too serious or too silly or even too gory. I enjoyed it and with this kind of ridiculous over the top movies doesn’t happen very often. The movie has enough heart in it that made me care about Nathan motives and creativity too because of all its action sequences to keep things interesting throughout.
