Novocaine (15)
Cast: Ray Nicholson, Jack Quaid, Amber MidthunderGenre: Action
Author(s): Lars Jacobson
Director: Robert Olsen, Dan Berk
Release Date: 28/03/2025
Running Time: 110mins
Country: US/Can/S Africa
Year: 2025
Nathan Caine is an assistant bank manager, who has exceeded his predicted 25-year life expectancy by sheltering himself from the outside world, never eating solid foods and setting a three-hour timer on his watch to remind himself to urinate. Shortly after a dreamy first date with coworker Sherry, Nathan's bank is robbed by Simon, Andre and his brother Ben, dressed as Santa Clauses. The three incapacitate Nathan, empty the safe and take Sherry hostage as a human shield.
LondonNet Film Review
Novocaine (15) Film Review from LondonNet
Without it, pleasure would relinquish its seductive sweetness, valuable life lessons such as avoiding contact with an open flame would never be learned, the mourning process would be rendered obsolete, and the need for medical attention would be met with blissful ignorance. Dan Berk and Robert Olsen’s hare-brained comedy introduces an unlikely action hero: a mild-mannered bank executive with an incredibly rare condition – congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA) – who is incapable of experiencing pain in his day-to-day life. This real-life syndrome is extremely dangerous because patients are unaware if they suffer grievous physical injury or if their body is valiantly fighting off an infection that requires urgent antibiotic reinforcement…
Novocaine screenwriter Lars Jacobson concocts a simple premise that transforms an introverted everyman with CIPA into a 21st-century superhero, who is almost certain to die in the line of duty because he doesn’t know when to stop. Jack Quaid is adorable as the socially awkward saviour, whose limbs and appendages are horrifically maimed and mauled in breathlessly choreographed fight sequences that push the envelope thanks to the central character’s condition. A nifty narrative curveball in the second hour turns the film satisfyingly on its head and cranks up the jeopardy. Sadistic torture is played for ghoulish laughs.
Nathan Caine (Quaid) is an assistant bank manager, who has exceeded his predicted 25-year life expectancy by sheltering himself from the outside world, never eating solid foods and setting a three-hour timer on his watch to remind himself to urinate. He is smitten with bank clerk Sherry Margrave (Amber Midthunder) but doesn’t muster the courage to ask her out until a recently widowed customer, Earl (Lou Beatty Jr), spurs him into action.
Shortly after a dreamy first date, Nathan’s bank is robbed by Simon (Ray Nicholson), Andre (Conrad Kemp) and his brother Ben (Evan Hengst), dressed as Santa Clauses. The three incapacitate Nathan, empty the safe and take Sherry hostage as a human shield. When Nathan regains consciousness, he gives chase and inadvertently behaves like an accomplice to the crime and, thus, a person of interest to investigating detectives Duffy (Matt Walsh) and Langston (Betty Gabriel).
Opening with a tongue-in-cheek chorus of REM’s Everybody Hurts, Novocaine milks every droplet of bone-crushing delirium from Nathan’s condition, delivering myriad gasp-inducing moments when the bank worker vaults merrily over a non-existent pain barrier. Spider-Man star Jacob Batalon is fertile comic relief as Nathan’s online gaming buddy, who claims to ride a Harley-Davidson and look like Jason Momoa. Stunts are performed with brio but Jacobson’s script strays outside the bounds of strained credibility with a contrived homage to one of the biggest films of the 1990s. Even in Berk and Olsen’s outlandish caper, some things are too much.
– Jo Planter
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London Cinemas Showing Novocaine
From: Friday 18th April
To: Thursday 24th April
Cineworld At The O2, Greenwich
Wed/Thu 13:50
Fri 23:30
Tue-Thu 16:30 (Wed/Thu) 20:50
Fri-Sun 21:50
From: Friday 25th April
To: Thursday 1st May
UK and Irish Cinemas Showing Novocaine
From: Friday 18th April
To: Thursday 24th April
Thu 13:20
Wed/Thu 11:20
Tue-Thu 14:50 (Wed/Thu) 20:20
Wed/Thu 11:10
Cineworld Glasgow – Renfrew Street
Tue-Thu 14:10 (Wed/Thu) 21:00
Wed/Thu 13:20
Wed/Thu 11:15
Wed/Thu 13:20
Tue-Thu 14:20 (Wed/Thu) 20:00
Tue-Thu 21:10
Wed/Thu 16:10
Tue/Thu 20:50; Wed 15:50
Wed/Thu 13:40
Mon 20:40
Wed 19:00
Thu 15:50
Wed/Thu 20:50
Mon 20:40
Odeon Luxe Birmingham Broadway Plaza
Wed/Thu 20:50
Thu 19:30
Tue-Thu 21:10
Odeon Luxe Glasgow Springfield Quay
Tue-Thu 21:10
Wed/Thu 14:30
Odeon Luxe Liverpool Switch Island
Wed/Thu 20:10
Wed/Thu 14:30
Fri/Sat 21:50
Tue/Wed 21:15; Thu 21:40
Wed 12:40 20:30; Thu 12:40 20:50
Sat 22:30
Tue-Thu 21:10
Fri-Sun 22:20
Tue-Thu 21:00
Wed 16:30
Thu 21:10
Sun 20:10
Wed/Thu 15:30
Sat/Tue 20:50
Thu 17:50
Wed/Thu 22:00
Showcase Cinema De Lux Bluewater
Wed/Thu 22:10
Wed/Thu 22:15
Wed/Thu 12:30 21:45
Showcase Cinema De Lux Reading
Wed/Thu 21:55
Tue/Thu 23:25; Wed 23:30
Sun 23:10
Fri 23:00; Mon 21:15
Tue 22:25
From: Friday 25th April
To: Thursday 1st May
Fri 22:30; Sat 21:50
Mon 13:50
Mon-Wed 10:40
