The movie trailers for Novocaine were violent and bloody and a bit ridiculous.
The protagonist, Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) was a man with a rare medical condition that rendered him incapable of feeling pain. As such, we saw scenes of him experiencing all forms of physical abuse including reaching into a restaurant fryer to retrieve a pistol that accidentally tossed into the boiling oil during a brutal fight.
His hand is scalded with third degree burns, but he still manages to retrieve and fire the gun, killing his assailant. The scene always got big laughs every time I saw the trailer, on a dozen occasions.
Pain can be funny. TV shows like "America’s Funniest Home Videos" prove that, on a nightly basis. It’s a strange psychological quirk (laughing at someone’s excruciating misfortune).
Novocaine is all about comedy and pain. For once, the movie trailers accurately show what the movie is about and what is in store—sadistic, bloody, brutal violence and pain.
While it all looked like nothing but cheap thrills, Novocaine turns out to be a better movie than what you might expect. Yes, there is graphic gore and atrocious injury, but there is also an underlying love story between a nerdy, reclusive assistant bank manager with a heart of gold, who spends his evenings gaming with a buddy he’s never met, and an attractive new female bank teller named Sherry (Amber Midthunder).
Their attraction is romantic and sweet. They are soulmates. But in movies like Novocaine, bliss is short lived, as it is here when bank robbers dressed in Santa Claus suits burst into the bank one holiday afternoon on a rampage of robbery and death. When the police arrive earlier than expected, the criminals drag Sherry away as a hostage.
Following an intense shootout with the police -- and faced with the loss of the only woman he’s ever loved (even briefly) -- Nate attends to a wounded police officer, grabs the officer’s pistol off the ground and takes chase in the fallen officer’s squad car. His impulsive actions lead the authorities to think that Nate may be part of the heist.
Not long into this sequence, the restaurant kitchen fight takes place, and we pretty much see what we’ve already seen in the trailers dozens of times. It’s a beautifully staged fight scene if you’re into action-comedy flicks. To its credit, it’s a sequence you don’t mind seeing again with the inclusion of additional stunts and inventive details. Yes, it’s that good.
The action/comedy genre is a tricky kind of film. The balance of violence and laughs requires a delicate kind of chemistry. The "Lethal Weapon" movies and "Die Hard" movies are great examples. What is required is: great writing, great directing and just the right talent with just the right kind of rapport and magic.
Remarkably, Novocaine has it all. The story moves at a brisk pace and never loses its footing. It’s a solid piece of filmmaking in terms of content and style. What it isn’t, is a movie meant for everyone.
The brutality is pretty intense. If you’re squeamish, you’ll be writhing, cowering and cringing in your seat.
On the other hand, if this kind of entertainment is your piece of cherry pie, Novocaine is guaranteed to rock your world, particularly if you see it in an XD theater with seats rigged to rumble with the sound of gunfire and explosions. There are plenty of those.
The idea of a movie character who can’t feel pain is an interesting one. The 007 movie The World is Not Enough (1999) featured the villain Renard played by Robert Carlyle. His inability to feel pain made him a formidable, one-of-a-kind James Bond foe. It’s hard to beat your opponent into submission when they can’t feel the pain of your best shots.
In Novocaine, Nate’s inability to feel pain makes him a superhero of sorts. He can be shot, stabbed, scalded or pounded to a pulp and still function. It’s not that he’s indestructible. The severe burns from the boiling oil leave his hands horribly blistered for most of the movie. It’s a stretch, in terms of believability, but that’s where much of the dark, twisted comedy comes in.
It’s hard not to laugh at someone like Nate who, like John Cleese’s knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) just can’t be stopped and won’t give up, no matter what. It’s absurd. It’s outrageous. But it’s damned funny.
Once you get past all the blood and gore.
Yorumlar