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A young man who can’t feel pain but, unlike Wolverine, doesn’t heal from his wounds, subjects himself to horrific injuries to rescue his girlfriend—or at least a coworker he recently hooked up with—from violent bank robbers in the entertaining if slightly flat Novocaine.
Jack Quaid, in his second concept thriller of the year (the first being the highly entertaining and clever sci-fi romp Companion), effectively plays Jack Quaid (awkwardly charming). That’s neither criticism nor praise. He makes for a likable, disarming protagonist… in a movie that is likable, disarming, but not as memorable as you’d think given its amusing premise.
And its premise is a selling point. A man who can’t feel pain–it’s a gift and a curse. Put him in an action movie and you’ve got yourself the proper set up for some cleverly staged sequences and hilarious antics.
Novocaine simply doesn’t live up to its potential, even if its positives outweigh its negatives.
Directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen stage some effective action scenes–however, if you’ve watched the trailers, you’ve seen much of the good stuff. Due to the marketing, Novocaine doesn’t offer up many surprises or shocking moments, and it feels like this should be the kind of movie where you go, “Holy crap, I can’t believe they went there.” Yes, Quaid’s Nate sticks his hand in a fryer to retrieve a handgun, punches broken glass to turn his hands into cutting weapons, and feigns horror as he is tortured, but the situations he finds himself in don’t compound like they need to. Novocaine shifts from one relatively predictable scene to the next, moving at a fast clip and laced with enough humor to get by–but this is the type of movie that needed to get increasingly outrageous as it goes along. In some ways, Berk and Olsen treat the material a little too seriously where a more bonkers approach would have paid off in spades.
Still, there’s enough here to like. Novocaine isn’t mind-numbling awesome, but it’s a satisfying little action thriller that scratches an itch, if only momentarily.
Review by Erik Samdahl.
