Novocaine (2025) Review: An Action Movie That Is Secretly the Silliest Body Horror Movie
Copyright © Paramount Pictures, Infrared Pictures, Safehouse Pictures, Circle of Confusion
Title: Novocaine
Director: Dan Berk, Robert Olsen
Release Date: March 14, 2025
It's still sad to see that Paramount has been derailing on making animated films, but at least when it comes to making full-on live-action films, they're still doing fine. I was initially not interested in this one, so I tried it out when it came to Amazon Prime. Today's movie is called Novocaine, the action comedy movie starring Jack Quaid and Amber Midthunder. Released in March with a budget of $18 million, the movie made a moderate flop with only $34.2 million from worldwide theaters. Despite the performance, critic and audience reviews were positive for its unique premise, action, and humor. For an out-of-the-box concept in the action comedy subgenre, Novocaine is a movie that will not guarantee pain, but rather smiles.
Summary
"When the girl of his dreams gets kidnapped, a man turns his inability to feel pain into an unexpected advantage as he fights a bunch of thugs to get her back." - Google
Reasons
The best CIP conditions of Novocaine are the unique concept, fun action, and dark humor. Besides only fighting thugs to save his girl, Nathan Caine is diagnosed with the inability to feel pain. It is a fresh take on the action comedy subgenre of movies. Be grateful that Paramount is still coming up with clever stories. Because of the concept, the action is super fun. The chaotic gore is the right reason to be rated R. When Nathan fights using his disability, it shows that these stunts are painful to do in real life. As for the third standout, the humor is absurdly funny. This movie has both snappy dialogue and antics in battle. It is also not afraid to push the limits of gross-out humor that is not so shocking to see.
Several other good conditions from Novocaine are the great performances, romantic chemistry, and unapologetic tone. Regardless if you have heard of them before, the actors knew what they were doing. Jack Quaid made a hilarious and charming performance that rivals Jim Carrey. The others, like Amber Midthunder, also gave their characters shine. Speaking of Quaid and Midthunder, the romantic chemistry is touching. You can tell that Nate really cares about saving Sherry. Even the silliest movies need to have some emotional sparks.
Yes, Novocaine is a great movie, but a few of its painful areas are the plot holes, pacing, and underdeveloped side characters. Like M3GAN 2.0, they are subtle, except this one is a far superior movie. It's confusing how Nate can still feel pain in some areas when he has the inability in the first place. In a runtime of 1 hour and 50 minutes, the pacing can get messy in some areas, especially in the middle. The climax does speed up to finish the quest. Lastly, the side characters are underdeveloped. We do not see much about them other than a few implications.
Conclusion
Novocaine is one of those unique films that deserve more attention. No wonder this movie failed when it had decent marketing. It's funny, it's violent, and it's underrated. Even if the Smurfs film is terrible, Paramount does not deserve any hate because they can still make good movies. If you like watching funny action that has some crime, you might like this movie.
Comments
Post a Comment