Matthew Lomas
Matthew LomasJack Quaid has had quite a fascinating 2025 so far. Starting the year off with the phenomenal Companion, I was absolutely sold on the concept of his next film, Novocaine. The trailer promised a strange action film that seemed to be similar to Nobody and Bullet Train. The question is, does the hype the trailer gave me match the enjoyment I felt while watching the film? Kind of. Let me explain.
For those who haven’t heard of the film, Novocaine is a movie that centers on Nathan Caine, a simple assistant bank manager with congenital analgesia. This condition means that Nathan cannot feel pain. This has caused him to live a life of isolation and extreme cautiousness until he gets to know Sherry (one of his co-workers) who opens him up to taking risks. One day, the bank is robbed and Sherry is taken as a captive to evade the cops. Fearing that he may lose her, Nathan sprints into action to save the girl that he has begun to love.
On paper, this film has the necessary ingredients to be good. There is a fresh character concept that hasn’t been explored before in an action format, a few well-known actors who are rising stars, and a simple plot to follow along. While this recipe works for a good chunk of this film, there are other parts of Novocaine where this blend of qualities doesn’t shine through. Jack Quaid does a decent job of bringing his best to the story but Amber Midthunder and Jacob Batalon are underused.
Amber’s character isn’t well developed before she is thrust into danger. She seems to be there for nothing more than a plot device to keep Nathan Caine motivated to keep the story going. Jacob’s character shows up at one point for a pivotal scene, but that is it. The film would hardly be different in any significant way with or without him. This sucks for both of them as I know from both Amber Midthunder and Jacob Batalon’s other projects that they are capable of so much more than this movie allowed them to do.
Due to these character development problems, Jack Quaid has to do most of the heavy lifting in terms of keeping the audience interested. Jack Quaid has a natural charisma that has made him shine in The Boys and Companion, but there is very little that seems to separate his character from those two roles. Hughie Campbell, Josh, and Nathan Caine all have such similar traits that I worry about Jack Quaid getting type-cast into these sorts of roles.
Regardless of these similarities, I believe that they work enough to get the audience to buy into Nathan’s common man personality and get the audience to root for him. While there seem to be exaggerations about the limits that the human body can take throughout this film, I would say that it is best to leave the common sense part of your brain parked outside of the theater while watching Novocaine.
The best part of this film has to go to the amazing action stunts and the stellar creativity that goes into the fight scenes. The filmmakers bring about a fresh way to use Nathan’s congenital analgesia in every single fight scene. These scenes kept bringing me back to the fight scenes we saw in Ke Huy Quan’s most recent film Love Hurts. While that film is certainly much more of a Valentine’s Day movie, I would not be surprised if the studios decided to give each other some space on the schedule so that the two weren’t competing with each other. While I enjoyed both films, I feel like both are fighting on the same level of strengths and weaknesses. The fighting is the core of these films and the writing seems to be left to the side at various times.
Overall, I think that Novocaine is an interesting film to go see. It is worth a viewing, but is better with a few friends and a drink. I have already seen that the steel books for this film are on pre-order. As a collector who gets steel books for films that I enjoy, I think that this is a case where the art quality of the steel book overtakes the quality of the film. I imagine that many are of a different mind, but this is one that I will not likely be picking up. If you are looking for other quirky action, check out Alexx Aplin’s review of Like a Dargon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii right here.
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23 Novocaine
Pros
- Creative Action Sequences
Cons
- Lack of Supporting Cast Development
- Twists that aren't bought into
- Too Many Sharks Jumped Over
