The great action films are the ones you can describe in one sentence.
Die Hard? Bruce Willis has to save people in a skyscraper.
Sudden Death? Jean-Claude Van Damme has to stop terrorists in a hockey stadium.
Speed? Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock have to keep a bus from going below 50 miles an hour while Dennis Hopper monologues at them.
Novocaine isn’t quite in the same league as these classic movies, but it does have a very simple premise – what if a guy who can’t feel pain becomes an action hero?
Jack Quaid stars as Nathan Caine, a mild-mannered assistant bank manager who was born with a genetic condition which means he can’t feel pain.
Quaid is the son of Hollywood stars Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan and has made a name for himself in recent years thanks to Amazon Prime hit The Boys, the recent sci-fi hit Companion as well as memorable appearances in films like Oppenheimer and Scream.
Quaid looks and acts like the exact midpoint of his parents – he has his dad’s leading man looks and his mother’s charm – and Novocaine is a great display of his talents.
In the plot of Novocaine, Quaid’s character finally meets the girl of his dreams, played Amber Midthunder, but their new-found love is shattered when she is kidnapped by a group of bank robbers.
Spurred by her kidnapping, Quaid goes on a hunt across the city to save her before it’s too late.
Novocaine feels the closest to the kind of film that would have starred Schwarzenegger or Stallone back in the day.
The post-modern twist is that you cast someone like Jack Quaid in the lead role and it somehow makes the film 20% funnier just by the very nature of him being a dork.
Novocaine is reliant on Quaid’s inherent charisma and likeability, as well as his ability to get the living hell beaten out of him.
Fans of The Boys know that Quaid is game to get blood splattered on him at a moment’s notice, and Novocaine stretches this out to the logical extreme – at one stage, he puts his hand in a deep fryer full of hot oil to retrieve a gun.
When Novocaine plays up the comedy of the hero not being able to feel pain, the film is worth the price of a ticket.
One hilarious scene has the hero being interrogated by a former military veteran, and the guy doing the interrogation gets gradually freaked out that his torture victim can’t feel pain.
When the film turns into a generic crime drama and we spend time trying to flesh out the villain’s back story, the film loses steam.
If the film was a John Wick-style romp of a near-invincible man on the hunt for his girlfriend, it would be a classic.
The filmmakers, Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, second guess themselves and decide that they need to flesh out the bad guys just as much as the likeable main character we’ve come to care about.
In the simplest terms, there is no good reason for this film to be 110 minutes; it could be a tight 90 minutes, and you could tell more or less the same story.
We understand that with ticket prices being what they are there is a temptation from studios to give the audience bang for their buck, but consider this; Crank, which this movie is a spiritual successor to, is a tight 88 minutes and packs everything in.
Novocaine is worth seeing, but the last thing an action film should make you do is check your watch like Sir Alex Ferguson.
To Berk and Olsen’s credit, they managed to get Ray Nicholson to play the leader of the crime gang and there is something oddly familiar about his energy; he manages to feel fresh but old school at the same time and you will be left wondering who this guy is.
A quick Google search reveals that he’s none other than the son of Hollywood legend Jack Nicholson.
Nicholson has built up a steady CV over the years (his most prominent role was in last year’s Smile 2, with his uneasy edge used to great effect), but this is the first time he’s been able to pop off in a major role.
The topic of “Nepo Babies” has become a favourite debate among people with too much time on their hands, but Jack Quaid and especially Ray Nicholson are proof that sometimes talent is in the genes.
Amber Midthunder came out of Opus with their dignity intact (making this the third week in a row that we’ve invoked Opus in a review, tune in next week to see if we make it four!) but Novocaine gives her a chance to play the love interest that the movie hinges on.
At the start of the film, you’re supposed to buy that Jack Quaid would be willing to put himself in harm’s way to rescue his lover, and the film spends a good amount of time establishing the stakes of their relationship before the action picks up.
The chemistry between them gets the audience on board and establishes the stakes well; if pointing out a basic tenant of screenwriting seems like damning with faint praise, we are all traumatised by how bad The Electric State was.
Novocaine looks and feels like a real movie and doesn’t have that Netflix soulless gloss attached; it helps that this film is being put out by Paramount (you know, the studio that was the home of Wilder, Coppola and Sturges) and not by someone like Netflix who tries to buy success and gravitas.
Novocaine doesn’t reach the heights of a John Wick film or even the cult classic level of Jason Statham’s insane Crank movies, but it is a solid pick for when you want to take a midweek trip to the cinema.