Skip to main content

Novocaine (2025)

Novocaine is what would be called a ‘high concept idea. The film sees Jack Quaid play Nathan Caine who is the Assistant Manager at a bank when he falls for Sherry the cashier at the bank and after they go on a date, the bank is targeted by robbers and takes Sherry. The thing about Nathan is that he was born with a condition where he cant feel pain. He has to watch what he eats and goes to the toilet. When Sherry is taken by the hostages, Nathan is racing to save her but also try and avoid the police who naturally think that Nathan is working with the robbers. 

Jack Quaid is quite good as Nathan. As Nathan, he is a terrible fighter but realistically he isnt going to be very good because he works in a bank. He isn't suddenly going to be John Wick so he wins sort of by luck more than anything else and that might be a problem for some but I think that it works for the film. Amber Midthunder is also very good as Sherry. The last time I recall seeing her in was Prey the Predator sequel and she was very good in that and whilst she doesn't really have much to do she makes all her scenes seem important and you notice when she’s not around. Also making Sherry seem like someone worth saving is tougher than you would think yet because of Midthunder, you want Caine to save her. Ray Nicholson is ok as the leader of the bank robbers but only really gets to be any good in his fights with Caine. Jacob Batalon plays the sort of role that is use to playing in the Spider-Man films although he is good at doing it so why not play the comic relief that the protagonist can rely on.

There are issues with the film but they are mainly plot related. Firstly we are told quite early on that Sherry is related to one of the robbers long before Nathan finds out so the twist of him finding out is wasted because it sort of makes Nathan look like a fool even if he doesn't know it yet. The other issue is at the end when Nathan gets 6 months under house arrest and Sherry gets 2 years (??) in prison. I think that what Nathan does is way worse than what Sherry does and yet Sherry gets the tougher sentence. 

Those two issues aside, the film is a lot of fun. Quaid has a lot of charisma that gets you through the early part of the film when nothing really happens and the fight scenes are enjoyable and mixing that in with the gore helps create a fun film that sort of knows what it is but has fun doing it. There are a couple of wincing moments which did make me want to look away. The first was when Nathan has not one but two finger nails pulled out. The next is when Nathan hammers his thumb back out of place so he can get the handcuffs off him and then snap it back. That looked horrible. Then there is a bit at the end when Nathan has his ulna bone (fancy name for his arm bone) broken and his hand is sort of flapping away at the side but it does lead to the death of Nicholson’s character and it's the last of many great deaths.

Novocaine is definitely worth your time. The only thing that ruined my movie experience was two people talking constantly throughout the film. Normally people talk during the trailers and shut up once the film gets started but these two a**holes carried on talking. I would like to watch this again but without talking. I thought this film did what I was expecting and wanted it to do.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jurassic World Dominion (2022)

I really enjoyed the first Jurassic World film, yes some of the things were a bit silly and it was a bit of fan service but I still enjoyed it and thought it worked quite well. The second one took a bit of a dip in quality and the whole idea that there is a secret lab underneath a massive house did seem a bit silly. It did end with a cliffhanger and the potential for this final could have been about how we were dealing with the dinosaurs. This final part of the trilogy (whether it's the final Jurassic film is doubtful) was delayed because of the pandemic although how much of that is why this film was a huge disappointment is probably going to remain a mystery. The main problem with the film is that it feels like three movies in one. You have the Claire/Owen storyline then there is the original trio’s storyline with the return of Dodgson and then the meshing of the two. This means that it feels like they are throwing a lot at the wall to see what sticks. Dodgson is portrayed as some...
Post a Comment
Read more

Elio (2025)

Elio is a film that seemed like it could be a lot of fun based off the trailer which is a mistake as a trailer has more often than not made a film to look better than it is. The trailer didn’t suggest that Elio had lost his parents (deceased parents is such a typical Disney move) and he now lives with his aunt who works on an air force base. He gets interested in space and then wants to be abducted by aliens and gets his wish and ends up in the communiverse with a variety of different aliens. This includes a warmongering Lord Grigon. Elio is mistakenly thought of as the leader of Earth and soon finds himself trying to broker a peace with Grigon. In the middle of all this He makes friends with Glordon who is the son of Lord Grigon. Elio plans to use Glordon as a bargaining chip and when he comes to pick up fortis then things go wrong and that is when the plot really kicks in. The animation is your typical Pixar sort and it’s nice and can work in any type of story. It’s weird to think th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hallow Road (2025)

Hallow Road stars Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys who are Maddie and Frank who are woken up in the middle of the night by their daughter Alice (Megan McDonnell) who has been in an accident and the movie is basically Maddie and Frank driving to the location talking to their daughter and it all takes place in the car.  The film is basically led by Pike and Rhys. Maddie wants to call the police and use a sympathetic police officer to help their daughter and yet Frank wants to take the blame and this leads to conflict between the two. One of the reasons why the film works in the way that it does is that these two work well together despite their characters being polar opposite. The fact that the film takes place inside the car apart from the opening couple of minutes and the final few minutes and still manages to be entertaining and gripping shows how good the performances were and also the writing. Credit has to go to director Batak Anvari for keeping things ticking along and never le...
Post a Comment
Read more