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

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Transcript

Introducing Novocaine: The Painless Hero

Speaker 1 0:07

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 0:18

F*** . Yeah , let's go for it so what's your deal ?

Speaker 1 0:21

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 0:38

It's Nathan , that's the N . Cain is his last name , but where's the Ovo came from ?

Speaker 1 0:44

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 0:47

I forget , but where's the Ovo coming from ? I don't know . The name is not quite justified , Should they ?

Speaker 1 0:53

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 1:02

How are ?

Speaker 1 1:02

you . That would have been really cringe .

Speaker 2 1:06

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 1:14

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 1:42

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 2:11

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

Character Development and Relationship Building

Speaker 1 2:31

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 2:47

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 2:57

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 4:00

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 4:13

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 4:19

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 4:46

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

Gore, Fighting, and Visual Impact

Speaker 1 5:04

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 6:04

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 6:59

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 7:12

Didn't make sense . Why ?

Plot Twist Problems and Storytelling Issues

Speaker 1 7:15

So , that this action sequence can happen . Exactly so that this set piece can happen .

Speaker 2 7:20

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 8:00

is that you come up with an idea and it's like , okay , this happens , right , and then this happens .

Speaker 2 8:05

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 8:40

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 8:55

Extremely good shooter I lost . Gets hurt emotionally , goes on a rampage , kills other people the end .

Speaker 1 9:03

Yeah , that's pretty good , that's pretty .

Speaker 2 9:05

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 9:33

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 10:05

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 10:34

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 10:58

Final review , final

Final Ratings and Recommendations

Speaker 1 11:00

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 11:52

Yeah With friends With friends , yeah with friends , yeah with friends you gotta watch this as a group .

Speaker 1 11:56

This would have been a perfect movie to go straight to streaming .

Speaker 2 11:59

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 12:13

Oh , we both did Okay .

Speaker 2 12:14

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 12:47

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 13:26

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 .