Movies Worth Seeing
Movies Worth Seeing is a comedy podcast that explores all the best trending films and blockbuster releases. A big movie buff, Michael is an unconventional reviewer of all things movies. This podcast is for anyone sick of watching crappy movies and wants only to watch the best
Movies Worth Seeing
Pain Becomes Power: Novocaine Movie Review
Jack Quaid stars as Nathan Cain (Novocaine), a man impervious to physical pain who transforms from a reluctant banker into an action hero when his girlfriend is kidnapped. The film balances comedy and gore effectively while exploring the journey of a man who initially sees his condition as an embarrassment before embracing it as a superpower.
• Clean, simple premise: a man who can't feel physical pain placed in emotionally painful situations
• Strong character development establishes a convincing relationship in the first 30 minutes
• Jack Quaid perfectly balances comedy and emotional depth
• Realistic, imperfect fight scenes make the action more engaging than polished superhero films
• Extremely graphic gore had reviewers wincing and covering their eyes
• Plot twist in the third act undermines character motivations
• Generic villains (bank robbers) leave room for improvement
• Both reviewers give it 3.5/5 stars - entertaining but not groundbreaking
• Perfect "bloke movie" for watching with friends
If you enjoyed this review, please like, share and subscribe for more reviews like this.
Novocaine stars Jack Quaid as a somewhat superhero who is impervious to pain, and we are about to review it, so let's get into it.
Speaker 2:F***. Yeah, let's go for it so what's your deal?
Speaker 1:My deal I'm just a regular guy with a regular job, but I've got this condition where I don't feel pain. Hey, there we go. Oh my God, you're a superhero. Nathan Cain, also Novocain. See what they did there.
Speaker 2:It's Nathan, that's the N. Cain is his last name, but where's the Ovo came from?
Speaker 1:No, the Novocain is the nickname. Kane is his last name, but where's the Ovo came from? No, the Nova Kane is the nickname.
Speaker 2:I forget, but where's the Ovo coming from? I don't know. The name is not quite justified, Should they?
Speaker 1:have just made his name Nova, last name Kane, and then be like oh, and he's also impervious to pain, so he's Nova Kane.
Speaker 2:How are?
Speaker 1:you. That would have been really cringe.
Speaker 2:I reckon let's start from the beginning. First things first. There are going to be a few spoilers, but this is not a movie that we spoil much about it.
Speaker 2:There's one plot twist. We won't discuss too much exactly what it is. Let's start from the beginning. The setup, I think, is really clean. It's so freaking, freakishly simple. You got a man who cannot feel physical pain, so you place him in a place where he feels emotional pain Makes sense as far as it's so simple as far as like the mundane yeah From just being a banker.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the fact that he has to foreclose people's, companies, businesses, because they cannot pay back the mortgages. That's literally the setup. It hurts them from the inside. So it's an extremely clean setup. I love that. It's simple, it is classic. I thought that was done really well. Oh oh, oh, no, stop it. Ah, oh, oh, oh, no, stop it. Ah, I mean, oh, ah, wow, that hurt. That one hurt the most.
Speaker 1:When I watched the trailers, my first thought was is the relationship going to have time to develop enough so that when Nathan Cane, nova Cain's girlfriend, gets kidnapped, am I going to care, am I going to understand his journey of leaping into action? And I felt like that was done pretty well. The movie gave us a good half an hour of investing in the relationship, seeing it develop over time, seeing them bond over similar physical weaknesses.
Speaker 2:It's kind of like a empathy that they have for each other and understanding a connection they relate to each other they're both outsiders to some degree.
Speaker 1:I like that. They made it very clean, very clear that nova kane doesn't see this illness as a gift. At the start he's very embarrassed by it. He doesn't want people to know that he's impervious to pain, like he avoids eating solid foods because of this fear that he's going to bite his tongue off. But as the movie progresses he starts to see like oh, this is actually awesome, because now I can use these abilities to save the woman I love. Yeah, I felt like it was a fun, simple journey. It was like john wick. If john wick didn't know that he was john wick. I. I felt like the gore was really gross, like it was over the top at times, but then it got into like like we were wincing. We were both in the theater looking at each other like covering our eyes, like we were watching a car crash. It was fun, but near the end I was just like oh, that's too gross, that's too, that's too much man.
Speaker 2:I don't usually wince for gore, but with this movie I really did. I've seen a few of the Saw movies and I was like, yeah, go on watching it, but doesn't really affect me. This one's like Get out of here.
Speaker 1:I would have liked it to be a little bit more over-the-top with the way it was portrayed, so that it's less gross.
Speaker 2:No, no, I don't, because then you would lose a lot of it. I would say the realism makes you feel the pain, though he doesn't. But if it's over the top, as audience member, we don't connect with it anymore, and I think that's the whole point. We all need to be like ah, and he's like that, hurt yourself.
Speaker 1:What the is that there was also like a lot of revelations about the character that were kind of sad and tragic Imagining a little kid getting like bashed, because everyone knows he can't feel physical pain. But seeing Jack Quaid show the emotional turmoil that he's carried from living a life like that and how his parents treated him, all those type of things you feel a lot of sympathy for the character, which I felt like that was all done really well. I feel like Jack Quaid does this really well, where he's balancing the comedy of being impervious to physical pain while giving us all the emotional insight of his character, and it makes the fight scenes really entertaining to me. You're seeing him not being perfect Not that John Wick perfect way of fighting. He's a couple of steps behind so he's missing things. He's not doing like perfect dodges or stuff like that. That is way more engaging for me now Just watching John Wick where like everything's quick and fast and he's just killing like a million dudes all at once without any. It's more relatable Any wounds More relatable.
Speaker 1:So we disagreed on one thing, though I feel like this lends itself to a sequel that could be a bit more improved on some of the things from this. Give us a bit of a stronger villain. I did feel the villain was quite generic, like these guys are just bank robbers, which in some ways is good, because it's not super unrealistic for him to defy the odds and fight them. But it would be good to see just just a stronger villain. I felt that was lacking and I felt that the, the relationship with the love interest was really good. But then there was a massive, creative, creative decision made that I felt, completely, completely it for me. You're talking about the plot twist. Yeah, I didn't like the plot twist. That plot twist made me think it needs to go in a different direction for its ending to be satisfied.
Speaker 2:A few characters had a change of minds or change of ways or change of behavior. They decided to do things in a different way, and I feel they weren't justified. They were all justified up until the midpoint, and then the plot twist came, and then suddenly everything.
Speaker 1:Didn't make sense. Why? So, that this action sequence can happen. Exactly so that this set piece can happen.
Speaker 2:It's imperfectly said by the creators of South Park, trey Parker and Matt Stone. Thank you, they did a masterclass on writing. You have a story that that goes a happens, then b, that happens, then c happens, then d happens. You have a shit story. It always needs to be a happens, therefore b happens, and because of b, c happens, but because of e, d happened and therefore c had to happen. So there's a correlation between the story points. It's not just A happens, then B happens, then C happens, because then they're completely separate. That's how it felt like with this movie after the plot twist. So what I'm saying?
Speaker 1:is that you come up with an idea and it's like, okay, this happens, right, and then this happens.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, it should be. This happens and therefore this happens, but this happens, therefore, this happens, but this happens, therefore this happened. And to go back a little bit on what you were saying before, the thing I I disagree with of why I don't believe there's going to be a sequel, for this is what we just said, because it's a sink, it's a one trick pony, this movie, and I feel like they have done the same trick four or five times already in this movie. I mean, you could do the same thing, but it's not going to be any different. Yeah, but that's like saying, well, john Wick was a one-trick pony Well.
Speaker 1:I disagree Because I feel like John Wick. The first film, great standalone, but then the second, third and fourth movie opened up the lore Let me give you one sentence and tell me if it doesn't fit the any of the movies.
Speaker 2:Extremely good shooter I lost. Gets hurt emotionally, goes on a rampage, kills other people the end.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's pretty good, that's pretty.
Speaker 2:That's every single john wick movie yeah, that's pretty good summer. It's a one trick pony, just seen from a different light, or expand the world or give them a different storyline, but it's the same storyline. In essence. The same thing will happen to Novocaine, though I don't think this movie is as big of a hit as John Wick. So what I would say why John Wick really succeeded, same as a lot of very successful movies. They really align themselves with what their essence is.
Speaker 2:Exactly what we were saying about John Wick before. It's a one trick pony. It's about the action. It's about the killing of as many people as he can in as many ways as he can. Now we justify it very well with the loss of his puppy and the thing that his dead wife gave to him. Right, yeah, and we did it in a cruel manner. So we really want him to take the revenge. And then we really hone in on the one trick he's going to. We know he's going to do, we want him to do, and he does With Novocaine.
Speaker 2:I think they missed out on that. It's simple. It's so simple that the essence is this kid, this guy is a f***ing rag doll. Use it as a f***ing rag doll, hit it as many ways as you can, and then you can bring a little bit of the sadistic side out of the audience that wants to see well, how far can we push this? I think then you can get a cult following. I think then you can make this movie a success and get 17 sequels out of it.
Speaker 2:But I don't think they went for that. I think then you can make this movie a success and get 17 sequels out of it, but I don't think they went for that. I think they gave this guy a nice story, good story, but nothing as heartwarming as with John Wick. And it was fun, it was entertaining, but that is it. But if I think if they're making a market out of this, there's so much more to gain out of it, that's what I think. If they're making a market out of this, there's so much more to gain out of it. That's what I think yeah.
Speaker 1:Final review, final review I would give Novocaine three and a half stars out of five. Like it's fun while it lasted. Some things could definitely be improved upon if they were to make a sequel. Like you said, addy, it's a fun one-trick pony kind of film that utilises that one concept story. So he was perfectly cast in it and it's great to see him keep doing stuff after the boys, because I feel like he is one of those actors that can elevate very simple concepts. Would I see it again On streaming services?
Speaker 2:Yeah With friends With friends, yeah with friends, yeah with friends you gotta watch this as a group.
Speaker 1:This would have been a perfect movie to go straight to streaming.
Speaker 2:To be honest, so one thing I've learned from our previous two reviews is our rating system is very relative. We gave snow white a higher rating than black bag. Oh oh, I did, we both did.
Speaker 1:Oh, we both did Okay.
Speaker 2:But I think, yeah, f*** that movie. No, but I think Black Bag is better than Snow White. But I think we gave Snow White a higher rating because it was way above expectations. Where Black Bag I had a high expectation but then it kind of disappointed me a little bit so I gave the lower Looking at Snow White being rated higher than Black Bag makes me question how you rate.
Speaker 2:I stand by it. F*** that movie. Fair point how I rate, I will give it the three and a half stars as well. I thought the comedy was disappointing. The trailer was hilarious, but in the movie the build-up is just too slow for the jokes to really land a punch. Would not watch it again unless it's on TV and with a bunch of mates and a few beers. Given the fact that it's not a complex movie, there's no deeper message to it. It's a simple fun entertainment for the night. Yeah, it's like, and there's nothing more than that Perfect bloke movie. It's a perfect bloke movie, absolutely. The movie itself doesn't carry any weight. It's kind of refreshing that there's no political message behind it either.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of nice. So that is Novocaine, nathan Cain Novocaine. If you enjoyed this review, please like, share and subscribe for more reviews like this. Until then, no pain, no gain bro.