Title – Novocaine (2025)

Directors – Dan Berk & Robert Olsen (Significant Other)

Cast – Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Jacob Batalon

Plot – Blessed/cursed to feel no pain, softly spoken bank worker Nate (Quaid) must go to extreme lengths when his branch is robbed and his co-worker and love interest Sherry (Midthunder) is taken hostage by the perpetrators.  

“Gotta admit you can take a hit”

Review by Eddie on 14/05/2025

Gaining international attention with his lead role as the mild-mannered Hughie Campbell in controversial TV hit The Boys, “nepo baby” Jack Quaid now finds himself at an interesting time in his career where his fidgety, neurotic everyman who can deliver a quip schtick is starting to run thin, needing to push himself out of his comfort zone should his career continue to grow outside of the soon to be finished up Boys world.

Doing much of the same in soon to be cult favourite Companion, Quaid gets his biggest chance yet to lead and deliver in Dan Berk & Robert Olsen’s Novocaine, a box-office topper in the United States that came and went before you could blink an eye, but Quaid struggles to differentiate his Campbell persona from that of bank worker Nate who suffers from a rare condition that allows him to feel no pain, a valuable asset when his bank is robbed and his love interest Sherry (Prey’s Amber Midthunder) is taken hostage.

Last seen behind the camera of the interesting Significant Other, directing duo Berk and Olsen have a lot of possibilities to explore with Lars Jacobson’s scrip that infuses everything from Jason Bourne, John Wick and Crank into one unique package that never feels as though it makes the most of its potential, as Novocaine struggles to be a romantic comedy, over the top action hitter or pulse-pounding thriller, meandering along to become a distracting sub-par effort that should have been a lot more memorable than it is.

Taking its time to get going as we are introduced to Nate’s world and his budding early romantic dalliances with Sherry, there’s a lot of angles Novocaine tries to work into its close to two hours of running time but it’s neither funny enough, spectacular enough action wise or well developed character wise to make its ingredients come together in a meaningful fashion, making all of its wins merely small ones around a bigger picture that should have been a lot more enjoyable.

With the unique central piece of Nate’s condition at its core, Novocaine had every chance to become a high-concept B-movie delight and while it has some fun in a few scenes with this no pain concept, namely an extended trapped house/torture scene, overall there’s so much that’s generic going on it’s hard to get overly excited about the film overall as we merely go through the paces of a formulaic fish out of water genre mash-up.

At the core of all this is the game but pedestrian Quaid who is far too young to be type-cast and pigeonholed into being Hughie Campbell for the rest of his days but if he keeps this trajectory up, he’s going to be stuck in this space for the foreseeable future.

Final Say –

Novocaine has a great idea at its core and some fun scenes scattered throughout its otherwise unremarkable running time, making this a time filler and a time waster and nothing more.

2 ineffective torture sessions out of 5