Novocaine (2025)
Directed by Dan Berk
When the girl of his dreams is kidnapped, everyman Nate turns his inability to feel pain into an unexpected strength in his fight to get her back.
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One standout kitchen brawl plays like Home Alone by way of The Evil Dead…
The fun culminates in an absurd Home Alone–esque booby-trapped home where Nate repeatedly triggers traps that would have taken Harry and Marv out in one go.
One scene literally feels designed as a deranged Home Alone riff, finding all manner of ways for Nathan to be maimed, cut up, and otherwise “injured”.
I suppose if you can accept that Jack Quaid cannot feel it when he’s shot with an arrow, you can accept that a bank robber might booby trap his entire house Home Alone style for basically no reason other than it makes a great place to torture Nate.
…dangerous “Home Alone” style boobytraps…
If you thought Home Alone had some brutal traps, Novocaine says, “Hold my beer and watch this anvil drop on a guy’s head.”
It’s a repetitive bloodbath without the adrenaline of some action marathons like John Wick.
…new-wave films like John Wick and The Raid…
Dan Berk and Robert Olsen’s “Novocaine” is the latest post-“John Wick” thriller in which the lead is put through a physical gauntlet and the audience can ooh and aah at dazzling choreography and the sound of bones snapping.
He’s not John Wick or Jason Statham.
The slapstick edition of John Wick…
Jacobson does not make the film into yet another John Wick clone, where Nathan has to battle his way through a massive criminal underworld and kill all manner of faceless henchmen.
Novocaine belongs to the same cinemasochistic tradition as movies like Evil Dead II and Crank, where the audience is invited to derive twisted pleasure from watching a heroic leading man get the crap beaten out of him in inventive ways.
Remember Jason Statham’s adrenalized “Crank”?
Novocaine is like Crank meets Upgrade…
…such as the Jason Statham-led trash-masterpiece Crank or the “save the girl” sensibilities of pretty much every action movie ever.
Think about the “Transporter” or “Crank” series of Jason Statham pictures.
…his character has a habit of tossing off sarcastic quips and pithy observations (once again, thank you Deadpool)…
And having such “Deadpool”-like quips in every scene—you are left tired and bored.
And unlike the Deadpool franchise, you won’t need to see fourteen other movies and know twelve pop culture references to get one punchline.
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…it adds a fun chapter to the Nobody playbook, chronicling an underdog hero with a heart of gold who finds his purpose and has nothing to lose.
As comic variations on “John Wick” go, I greatly prefer “Nobody,” the 2021 Bob Odenkirk-led sleeper, which was character-driven as well as funny and brutal.
It’s reminiscent of the far superior action film “Nobody,”…
The choice to set the story at Christmas is possibly a nod to Die Hard…
Classics like Die Hard and Rambo…
I found the similarly ugly “Kick-Ass” (2010) and its wretched 2013 sequel to be equally hard to like and not as “edgy” as the hype indicated.
…mixed with DARKMAN and KICK-ASS, both without pain receptors…
One standout kitchen brawl plays like Home Alone by way of The Evil Dead…
Novocaine belongs to the same cinemasochistic tradition as movies like Evil Dead II and Crank, where the audience is invited to derive twisted pleasure from watching a heroic leading man get the crap beaten out of him in inventive ways.
…mixed with DARKMAN and KICK-ASS, both without pain receptors…
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The romance between Nate and Sherry, while cute, feels like it’s running on fumes by the third act, less “True Romance” and more “True Concussion.”
…they shoot the manager, beat Nate to a pulp, and machine-gun the cops Heat-style.