“Novocaine” delivers a great mix of intense action and some laughs

If you’re looking for something that delivers a great fun mix of dark humor and insane, tense action, then “Novocaine” will definitely be right up your alley!

When the girl of his dreams is kidnapped during a bank robbery, everyman Nate turns his inability to feel pain into an unexpected strength in his fight to get her back.

“Novocaine” is one of those movies that you can easily turn your mind off for a couple hours and enjoy. This movie delivers a lot of chaotic action sequences scattered throughout, mixed in with some fun humor and even a couple thrills.

Normally before I review a movie, I usually check out the trailers to see what I’m getting into. For “Novocaine,” I decided to not look at the trailers and go in not knowing a whole lot, and I’m glad I did.

This movie does a great job blending a few genres together - comedy, action, thriller, and a touch of romantic comedy. The first act pretty much starts almost like a romantic comedy, which actually works well for this movie since it helps us get familiar with these two characters. During those moments, we can see that the two main characters (played by Jack Quaid and Amber Midthunder) have some great on-screen chemistry.

And, once the action starts up after the bank robbery, it doesn’t let up! The action that is featured throughout the movie is absolutely insane and chaotic. The filmmakers use the main character’s inability of pain (which is a real condition) really well in the action scenes and sometimes takes the action to a whole new (and sometimes brutal) level.

There’s one scene that delivers some good laughs and action where we see Nate go through one of the kidnapper’s houses and the house is set with booby traps and it’s like a more, chaotic, R-rated “Home Alone”-inspired sequence. Jacob Batalon, who plays Ned in the recent “Spider-Man’ movies, steals the show in a few moments as Nate’s video game friend.

“Novocaine” also delivers some big twists and turns that you might see coming. But, with how much fun you will have watching this movie, you won’t mind the predictable twists at all. This is definitely one of those movies that you have to suspend belief and just go with the absurdity of the situations, it’s all part of the highly entertaining fun!

Cast: Jack Quaid (aka Dennis Quaid’s son) (Nate); Amber Midthunder (you might have seen her in the awesome Hulu “Predator” prequel “Prey”) (Sherry); Ray Nicholson (Simon); Jacob Batalon (Roscoe); Conrad Kemp (Andre); Evan Hengst (Ben); Craig Jackson (Nigel); Lou Beatty Jr. (Earl); Betty Gabriel (Mincy); Matt Walsh (Coltraine).

Writer/director: Lars Jacobson (writer) (Day of the Dead: Bloodline); Dan Berk and Robert Olson (directing duo) (horror indie “Significant Other”)

Trivia: The project was announced to be in development in October 2023. The main character’s condition is called congenital insensitivity to pain (CIP), also known as congenital analgesia, is one or more extraordinarily rare conditions in which a person can’t feel (and has never felt) physical pain.

“Novocaine” is rated R for strong bloody violence, grisly images and language throughout   (running time 110 minutes)

https://youtu.be/99BLnkAlC1M?si=YMuDOmDrEYACLjKA