Novocaine (2025) Movie Review

0:10 hello everyone and welcome to the concession stand here on the kb radio network i am your host kevin reed and this is the review of

0:20 the action comedy film nova cane which stars jack quaid this film follows nathan cane who you

0:30 is a bank employee with the ability or the inability i should say to feel pain who goes out to rescue his co-worker after she is taken hostage by a group of bank robbers this film uh

0:47 was somewhat looking forward to it it wasn't like a movie that i was gonna beat down the doors of my local theater to go see but if the opportunity arose you

1:00 i was willing to go check it out and the opportunity did arise this film uh as i said stars jay quaid who you may know is the son of dennis quaid and meg ryan and he is

1:16 somewhat on a roll now along with novocaine coming out just a few weeks ago he was in uh companion which i enjoyed as well but you may commonly know him

1:28 from the boys which is the superhero series that's on prime video but this is his first starring role his first big theatrical film that he is the lead

1:43 of so it was a lot of hype behind that i wanted to see can he be a quote-unquote leading man like his father is still is to this day in some sort uh

1:56 for better or worse i should say but definitely in the

1:59 80s and 90s huge dennis quaid fan as well as jack i i thoroughly enjoy his work on the boys i like him and pretty much everything he pops up in he was in a one of the stream sequels a couple of years back i thought he was pretty good in that like i said before i liked him in companion and

2:21 let's see how this go uh with this star

2:24 role lead role in this film i think he did an excellent job i i think uh i'm not gonna say he's our next action hero it just isn't that type of film this film was just

2:40 suited for him he was born to play this role if if that makes any sense i mean let's be honest nobody was looking for nova king to just blow the

2:52 roof off of the box office i mean it was what it was but for an average guy you know putting this extraordinary position he was just perfect for this role and he's what carries this film i mean the film centers around him going on this adventure if you will to find his girlfriend who was kidnapped in

3:16 this uh bank robbery very good i actually liked

3:21 Going on this ride with him and now this film does not reinvent the wheel in no shape form of fashion There's nothing really innovative about this movie other than the fact that our lead character Jake Wade who plays this

3:38 Character has the inability to feel pain.

3:41 That's the selling point of this movie

3:44 Him going through all of this stuff having to get into fights shootouts in car accidents and whatnot

3:51 without feeling any pain it was even a scene in here where he was uh being tortured and the torturer was applying pain to him and he can't feel it and so he has to put on the act like he is it is i i

4:07 enjoyed that that was really funny but the only downside to that they they spoiled all that in the uh in the trailer and so i knew that was coming and the joke

4:19 Really didn't land because we seen it in the trailer and there's no fault of the movie.

4:24 It's the marketing and

4:28 It seems to be a plague lately with these films that's coming out

4:33 They just for everything in trailers every used to get it every now and then you know You used to get it in certain movies.

4:41 They'll kind of show too much now It feels like every movie every trailer they show too much

4:49 And once you get to the film and watch the film,

4:52 you know exactly what's going to happen.

4:53 You know exactly what the plot twist is,

4:57 the reveal is,

4:59 the double cross is,

5:00 because you've seen it in the trailer.

5:03 and it's so frustrating i will say this the trailer doesn't reveal the twist because this movie does have a twist but you kind of knew it was coming then you know at least i did i knew it was coming

5:19 10 minutes into the movie i like okay i know what this is i know exactly where we're going but even with that even knowing that early on i still enjoyed the ride and

5:32 the film doesn't really you know disrespect the audience you know dumb down the audience with holding it to the end we knew now the lead character didn't know but

5:48 we knew uh the film tells you this you know the start of the second act so i'll say about 30 to 45 minutes into the movie you kind of they told you what was going on but our lead character who we are

6:02 following he didn't know and that was a good way to go into this you knowing this and he's still traveling down his road without knowing the twist and just waiting for the ball to drop i thought that was uh uh pretty good um

6:19 this film is directed by dan burke and robert olsen uh two directors that i do not i don't know their previous work they have directed films in the past but i haven't seen them

6:31 and you know i haven't seen them so i did i wasn't familiar with their work here but i thought this was a pretty decent movie this was pretty low budget you know by hollywood standards i think this movie was made for under 20 million dollars which

6:48 is pretty much an independent film these days but uh for what the budget was i thought it looked good i thought the paste of it was fairly well you

7:01 Um,

7:02 not all the jokes landed.

7:04 I felt it could have been a little funnier,

7:08 but overall,

7:09 it was still an enjoyable watch.

7:11 I did like the supporting characters.

7:13 You had Amber Midthunder in this film.

7:16 You may know her from Prey.

7:19 That

7:20 Predator prequel that came out on Hulu a couple of years back.

7:23 It's good to see her pop up in something else because

7:26 I've been waiting to see her pop up in something ever since Prey.

7:30 Because she showed that she is a capable actress of holding down a film.

7:34 You know,

7:35 she held that movie down by herself.

7:37 A Predator movie.

7:39 You know,

7:40 by herself.

7:41 And probably one of the best Predator movies they ever made.

7:45 And that's including the original with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Carl Weathers.

7:48 And all of those beefy men that was in that film.

7:52 Amber Midthunder did an excellent job in Prey.

7:55 So I was waiting to see her pop up in something else.

7:59 of this caliber you know a theatrical release and finally i get to see it in in this film she didn't have much to do in this movie but i did enjoy her when she was on screen i i really believed her character you know she was fun to watch she uh

8:17 has some really uh good moments especially the chemistry between her and jack quaid in this film i thought was excellent um

8:26 our main villain here uh ray nicholson who portrays the uh villain here really see shades of his father yes this is a real legacy film uh ray nicholson is the son of jack nicholson and

8:41 so we you know it was good to see him kind of get manic and you can see shades of his father uh peek out of him when he was in his little uh crazy state but

8:55 That being said,

8:57 his character wasn't really developed well.

9:00 You know,

9:01 he was kind of mustache trolley villain.

9:04 He's just bad.

9:05 He's just a bad guy.

9:06 We don't get any backstory to his character at all.

9:11 Jacob

9:11 Batalon, who you may know from the Spider-Man films as Ned,

9:17 he's in this movie,

9:19 not very much,

9:20 but he's in this film kind of useless.

9:24 You know,

9:25 and I like Jacob.

9:26 I like him in the Spider-Man films.

9:29 You know,

9:30 I wish there was something else for him.

9:32 You know,

9:32 instead of being the sidekick,

9:34 he was the sidekick in all the Spider-Man movies.

9:37 And I want to see a little more from him,

9:39 you know,

9:40 instead of this sidekick role.

9:43 Yes,

9:43 he plays it well,

9:45 obviously,

9:46 but for this film,

9:48 he really wasn't needed.

9:51 You know,

9:51 and that's no knock on him.

9:52 I'm just saying as far as the character is concerned,

9:55 it wasn't really needed.

9:57 But

9:58 I understand they had to give

10:01 Jack Quaid's character somebody.

10:03 to rely on as i hinted on a little while ago at least at the beginning of this review this this is not the greatest of films you know this isn't a film that you would run to go see honestly this is more of a screaming movie uh you can catch if

10:22 this was on netflix if had premiered on netflix or prime or any of the other services it would have been just fine and it felt like that unfortunately it just felt

10:33 like a you know on-demand movie this isn't a theatrical film that warrants you going out rushing to the theater to go see but at the end of the day it is enjoyable but i think you would enjoy it better just sitting at home watching it then or going to the theater to go see it it

10:56 just didn't feel theatrical it just didn't have that pop for me even though i liked it i liked it

11:03 the movie didn't love it but i liked the movie um overall i would say the best thing about this film jack quay's performance i thought was uh fairly funny he did a really good job of playing this guy that can't feel pain you know so he really couldn't show emotion when he was going through this stuff you know really emote pain when

11:25 he was going through it and i thought he did an excellent job with there and with the development of his character you really felt it

11:32 You felt the development of his character.

11:35 They did a good job with him.

11:37 Unfortunately,

11:38 they didn't do a good job with nobody else in this film.

11:41 They had two police detectives in this movie that were just there for the sake of we need police involved in this bank robbery thing.

11:50 But other than that,

11:52 they weren't needed.

11:52 All of the other supporting roles weren't needed aside from Jake Quaid and the bank robbers.

12:01 and and uh amber uh mid thunders character other than that nobody else in this movie was needed at all you know they set up one character in the beginning that was uh uh i wasn't gonna say a friend of jay quay's character but somebody that he helped out and

12:21 then later on he goes to this character again and it was all just a setup that he had to go to this guy but he didn't have to go to this guy it was like

12:31 Okay,

12:31 well he needs to go somewhere and kind of recover from his injury So oh we did have a scene with this guy early in the movie.

12:40 Let's go revisit that.

12:41 That's what it felt like

12:43 Just felt like let's throw this guy back in the mix other than that.

12:47 It was no need for that character,

12:49 but

12:51 Yeah, the characters were underdeveloped the action was was decent,

12:56 you know,

12:57 it didn't you know blow your socks off it was

13:00 just basic little fight scenes and a couple of shootouts you know other than that there was really no action in it but the comedy i wanted more comedy and we didn't really get it pretty much all the jokes were in the trailer you

13:18 know aside from that they realized it really wasn't nothing new to kind of laugh at here you know i did get a couple of giggles throughout the film

13:28 I'm not gonna say it wasn't funny at all.

13:30 There were some giggles throughout,

13:32 but nothing that was like slap my knee and hold my stomach,

13:39 gut-busting laughing.

13:41 But at the end of the day,

13:43 it was enjoyable.

13:45 It's worth a watch.

13:47 Novocaine gets a letter grade of a C+.

13:50 Yeah,

13:52 it's decent.

13:52 It's a decent movie.

13:54 You know,

13:54 it's not gonna offend you in any way.

13:58 You know,

13:58 it's not going to,

14:00 you're not going to feel cheapened by going to see it.

14:03 Like you wasted money.

14:05 I don't feel like I'm wasting money.

14:07 I don't feel like this was something I could have waited to see,

14:11 but it wouldn't have hurt to have waited to see it.

14:16 I'll put it that way.

14:17 But I did enjoy it overall.

14:19 I would like to know,

14:20 did you check out Novocaine?

14:22 Did you enjoy it?

14:23 Or are you like feeling like I'm feeling you?

14:27 probably can wait to the wait till it drops on one of these services and just check it out there or on demand and rent it at home i understand i would love to know your thoughts email the show kbradiopodcast at gmail.com you can also search for the show on all social media platforms just search for the kb radio network also

14:48 don't forget about youtube subscribe to the youtube channel the kb radio network channel that is and like this video if you don't mind don't

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15:04 You are currently listening to The Concession Stand here on the KB Radio Network.

15:10 Everybody,

15:11 thank you for joining me for this review of Nova King.

15:14 I want you all to know that I love you.

15:16 Continue to love everyone.

15:17 And until we speak again,

15:19 you all be blessed.