Novocaine (2025)

I wasn’t sure I would ever find something new to watch but I guess my luck changed when I went to see Novocaine. As someone who loves action movies, I’ve probably seen more than my observant and detail-oriented brain could think of and after seeing the next film to come out of this genre, well, I had fun and that’s what counts. I thought the idea behind the movie was clever and I enjoyed watching the story unfold but I wouldn’t go as far as to call it groundbreaking. While it did offer something I haven’t seen before, a lot of it felt like something I had. But then again, I kind of expected that going in so I wouldn’t exactly call that a bad thing. I’ve seen action flicks that have no clue what they’re trying to be, so I would definitely take the same formula I’ve seen before over any of those other mindless films any day. Again, I knew what I was getting myself into when I went to see this movie and it definitely made for a good excuse to get out of the house. That being said, let’s discuss it further.

     The film follows a bank assistant manager with a more reserved lifestyle than mine named Nate (Jack Quaid), who is incapable of feeling physical pain and develops feelings for his co-worker, Sherry (Amber Midthunder). But things soon take a turn for the worst when she is kidnapped during a bank robbery. Determined to rescue her, Nate uses his disorder as an advantage to rescue her. Like I said before, the idea is clever but I feel like they could have done more with it. And maybe it’s just my overcritical mind talking here but I feel like some of the action scenes could have been done better too. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed them but it felt like more of the same when it comes to watching the same generic formula that I’ve seen before. But on a more positive note, I did enjoy the comedy that this movie had to offer. I won’t lie when I say that it also felt like something familiar but that’s what I liked about it. As I’ve made clear on one of my pages, repetition can be comforting. I know that I was actually talking about movies I’ve already seen but the same can be said for movie formulas too. I thought the cast did pretty alright as well, the rest including Ray Nicholson, Jacob Batalon, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh, Conrad Kemp, Evan Hengst, and anyone else I may have forgotten to mention. At the very most, this made for a pretty okay movie experience and I can’t really be disappointed for that.

     I know everyone’s opinions are different and I’m sure there’s somebody out there who would gladly contradict mine in terms of how one feels about this movie. Honestly, when it comes down to it, I’ve just seen much better movies. I can see this film as something I would watch on tv when there’s nothing else on but I can’t really see it as anything more than that. It was enjoyable but I just wish they had done more with the idea behind this film because I feel like there was so much room for potential there. My overall score for this movie would be a 6 out of 10. If you’re in the mood for action and some pretty funny moments, go check this film out if you haven’t already. You’ll have fun, I can promise you that much.