By Nick Nitkowski 

It’s safe to say that if you’re reading this review, you enjoy movies. Everyone has a specific genre of movie that they enjoy most. Whether it be comedy, horror, action, or drama, there’s always something for everyone. But every once in a while, we get combinations of genres in order to make something new. The most common of which is the action-comedy. A perfect blend of humor and action stunts makes for a fun experience. However, many films try to tackle this genre combo and fail. The most recent of which, in my opinion, was “Love Hurts”. But here we are a month later, and we already have another attempt at the action-comedy genre, “Novocaine”! 

“Novocaine” is about a man named Nathan Caine, played by Jack Quaid, who works at a bank and has a unique condition, he cannot feel any pain. He soon meets and falls in love with a girl named Sherry, played by Amber Midthunder. But when the bank gets robbed, the bank robbers take Sherry as a hostage. Now it’s up to Nathan, emboldened by his love for her, to do everything he can to try to save her. The movie also stars Betty Gabriel, Ray Nicholson, Matt Walsh, and Jacob Batalon.

This movie was pretty fun. I had a pretty good time watching this one. My only suggestion would be to avoid the trailers, especially the Red Band one, as they do give away some of the best parts of the movie. There are more scenes that they don’t show that are fun, but I think it’s best to go in as blind as possible.

What I like most about this movie was of course the action and the humor, but also the fact that the movie brought up a few interesting things that one might not think about when it comes to a person who can’t feel pain. One might think, “Oh! A guy who can’t feel pain must be indestructible”, but there are some complications to such a condition that the movie addresses and I appreciated that because I hadn’t even thought about some of the things that they brought up. And some of them played into the comedy as well. 

I think it goes without saying that Jack Quaid carries this movie. Ever since I first saw his star in the show “The Boys”, I’ve been keeping a closer eye on his career, and I really like what he’s been doing. From “Scream (2022)”, “Companion”,” and other films that I didn’t know he was in, like “Hunger Games” (R.I.P. Rue), he’s been doing a great job, and I’ve enjoyed his performances in those movies. His performance here was also a fun one to add to the list. Everyone else did well, and they understood their assignments. The only other most notable performance was from Ray Nicholson as one of the film antagonists. I don’t want to say too much about him and let the movie show you.

Overall, I had a really fun time watching “Novocaine”! It had lots of comedic moments that definitely had me laughing, as well as lots of fun, high-octane, and comical action sequences. This is an “R” rated action-comedy movie, which means F-bombs galore, and there will be blood. So, bring the kids… directly to a babysitter because this is obviously not for them. It’s like a combination of “Crank” and “Taken” with some of the humor of “Deadpool” minus the fourth-wall breaks. Granted, not every joke in the movie works, and some moments are predictable, but despite that, I still had a fun time. I believe this movie succeeds where “Love Hurts” failed. If you had any curiosity about this movie, I’d say check it out. You just might find yourself having a good time as giving this movie a fair chance definitely won’t leave you feeling numb.

4  stars