Movie Review: ‘Novocaine’ Is A Great Time

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Review by James Lindorf

FilmNation Entertainment is a 17-year-old film studio that has had its hands on plenty of Oscar nominees, including this year’s big winner, “Anora.” With the help of their recent critical successes, they have launched a new production label called Infrared. They aim to produce three to four films with mid to high-level budgets and franchise potential a year across the action, thriller, comedy, and sci-fi genres. “Novocaine,” the first film under this new banner featuring “The Boys” star Jack Quaid, a Lars Jacobson script, and the directing team of Dan Berk & Robert Olsen (Villains), will open wide on March 14th.

Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis, commonly referred to as CIPA, is a rare genetic disorder characterized by an inability to feel pain and impacts approximately 1 in every 125 million births. One of those babies was Nathan “Nate” Caine, a sheltered bank executive who plans out every part of his life to avoid any possible injury. When Sherry (Amber Midthunder), a coworker and the girl of his dreams, first gets him to open up and is then kidnapped by bank robbers, Nate turns his inability to feel pain into an unexpected strength in his fight to get her back.

A man having to take on the bad guys to get back the woman he loves is hardly a groundbreaking premise. Kurt Russell did it in “Breakdown” and John Cena in “The Marine.” It is even at the heart of the greatest action movie ever, “Die Hard,” in which “Novocaine” also shares a Christmas setting. What separates “Novocaine” from the parade of similar projects is the effortless charm and chemistry of Quaid and Midthunder and the endless string of cringe-inducing action scenes.

Nate lives a very safety-conscious life. He is a master of defensive driving and has dozens of DIY tools to protect himself; he even forgoes solid food for fear of biting his tongue off. Another thing that keeps him safe is the self-imposed isolation. His only friend, Roscoe (Jacob Batalon), also lives in San Diego, but Nate only knows through online gaming. It also appears that Nate has never been on a date or experienced much of any human contact, giving Sherry the opportunity to open him up to all kinds of new experiences, like giving him her cherry pie. The film’s first act flies by as it sets the groundwork for who Nate is and why he would go to such lengths to track down the trio of murderous Santa-clad bank robbers.

What follows is Berk and Olsen doing their best to inflict every bit of pain that Nate cannot experience on the audience. Some films have tracked the number of screams or laughs to show that audiences enjoy their product. If “Novocaine” were going to do the same thing, it would have to be a groan or wince counter. It could be from the secondhand embarrassment of watching our naive, lovestruck hero navigate a budding romance or the stream of abuse that includes burns, bullet wounds, eye stuff, nail stuff, and what must have been dozens of impalements. It culminates when Nate enters the home of one of the suspects and finds it set up like an evil version of “Home Alone.”

“Novocaine” is a lot of fun, imagine a mix of Jason Statham’s “Crank” and “Hostel” with a romantic angle. It suffers a bit from repetition, a lack of originality beyond the general premise, and a mid-story twist that is less shocking and more damaging to our connection with the characters. Quaid’s charm, Ray Nicholson channeling his dad Jack’s manic energy as the leader of the bank robbers, and Midthunder providing the emotional balance and complexity make this much more than a standard shoot ’em up and earns a 4.5 out of 5.

Rating: R (Language Throughout|Grisly Images|Strong Bloody Violence)
Genre: Action, Comedy, Mystery & Thriller
Original Language: English
Directors: Dan Berk and Robert Olsen
Producer: Drew Simon, Tory Tunnell, Joby Harold, Julian Rosenberg
Screenwriter: Lars Jacobson
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Safehouse Pictures, Infrared
Release Date (Theaters): March 14th, 2025, Wide
Runtime: 1h 50m