Novocaine

2025
15
1h 50m

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

14K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Play trailer2:29

6 Videos

70 Photos

Dark Comedy One-Person Army Action Superhero Action Comedy Thriller

When the girl of his dreams is kidnapped, a man incapable of feeling physical pain turns his rare condition into an unexpected advantage in the fight to rescue her.When the girl of his dreams is kidnapped, a man incapable of feeling physical pain turns his rare condition into an unexpected advantage in the fight to rescue her.When the girl of his dreams is kidnapped, a man incapable of feeling physical pain turns his rare condition into an unexpected advantage in the fight to rescue her.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

14K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

See production info at IMDbPro

User reviews132

Featured review

5/10

High anticipation, but I was left disappointed.

Nate, also known by his childhood nickname Novocaine, lives with CIPA, a condition that means he cannot feel any pain, but also lives a somewhat quiet life. Things get better for Nate when he meets Sherry, and begins to fall in love with her, unfortunately during a robbery she is kidnapped, he does whatever it takes to get her back.

I can't lie, I was looking forward to this, the storyline really did appeal to me, I love the idea of CIPA being used as a plot device, a nice idea, unfortunately it doesn't quite work.

It's an action thriller come black comedy, the trouble is it doesn't know what it wants to be, and it blurs between daft, violent thriller and lame attempt to copy Die Hard.

The shoot 'em up sequences were so bad, once again we have Police who have issues with aiming guns, it just feels daft, with poor Nate slotted in as some sort of mortal superhero.

Jack Quaid is actually really good, I hate dissing the film because he puts in a good performance, but he's up against it with a weak script and confused narrative.

There are some further positives, the tattoos are immense, I'll say that, truly a work of art and the movie's general pacing is good, it does actually move by quickly, sadly it's all a bit jumbled.

5/10.

Videos6

Novocaine: No Pain All Gain (Featurette)

Video 0:47

Big Game Spot

Photos70

+ 63

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Despite Nate's ability to not feel pain, Dan Berk and Robert Olsen were meticulous in working to make sure the internal logic of the film stayed grounded, no matter how heightened the situations became. "He's not a superhero, and we were going to take liberties with how far the human body can be pushed," Berk says. "Every action movie does, but we wanted to stay within a semi-believable realm within the rule system of our movie. So what we did with our stunt team was we went through and audited every single hit in the movie, and we transferred a lot of those head hits down into body hits. We didn't want his face to be mashed potatoes by the midpoint of the movie."

Goofs
Simon (Ray Nicholson) threatens to shoot the bank manager with a 1911 pistol that has the hammer down. A 1911 is a single-action pistol that must be cocked before it is capable of firing.

Quotes
Nate: [from trailer]
[a ball of spikes hits Nate in the back, then he turns around]
Nate: What the fuck is that?

Connections
References It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Soundtracks
Everybody Hurts
Written by Bill Berry (as William Thomas Berry), Peter Buck (as Peter Lawrence Buck), Mike Mills (as Michael E. Mills) and Michael Stipe (as John Michael Stipe)
Performed by R.E.M.
Courtesy of Craft Recordings, a division of Concord