"Novocaine" Movie Review

It’s shocking to think that it took two far-from-first-time-directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen to make this film.  With not much on their collective resumes, this is certainly their biggest endeavor and it’s not likely they’re going to easily get another shot at the big time.

Jack Quaid is having a good Q1 leading not one but two major releases coming out within weeks of each other: Companion and Novocaine and sadly neither is anything to write home about or even look forward to watching on a streaming service in about a month.

The premise of Novocaine looked interesting in the trailer I’ve seen 800 times since late last year but it fell far from living up to anything exciting.  Quaid plays Nathan, a nebbish assistant bank manager who swoons every time one of his tellers walks past him.  Within minutes of the annoyingly and terribly slow 30-minute ramp up Nathan gets his shot at his dream girl but almost screws it up because he flubs every word and awkwardly stumbles over himself when he tries speaking to her in ways generally reserved for a rom-com.  We quickly come to learn of his condition and why he’s had the nickname Novocaine, spelled like Novocain with an E because his last name is Caine.  Clever!  Really….?

After an abrupt robbery in his bank that turns disturbingly and shockingly violent, Nathan is forced(?) to chase after Amber whose been “kidnapped” by the thieves.  After that, Nathan spends the rest of the film jumping into carefully crafted set pieces for no other reason than to have him get mauled, stabbed, shot, and burnt, all while making unrealistic quips to the bumbling band of bank robbers turned kidnappers.

A plot twist is thrown in that anyone can see coming about 15 minutes before the big reveal which only shows the convoluted mess of a desperate storyline.  Two inept detectives are thrown into the mix along the way who we are told are basically the only two peacekeepers working the entire city because it’s Christmastime.  And even their storylines go sideways and shockingly dark toward the end.  They get an A for surprises, however unnecessary and out of place they turn out to be.

In the end, no one is held realistically accountable for all of the deaths (murder), destruction (cars and houses), and general illegal activities (speeding, stealing, shooting, fires, deception, etc.) and Nathan and Amber live happily ever after.

A mess of a film that could have, should have, been much better.

- Paul Rosen