Novocaine (2025).

Review #2360: Novocaine (2025).

Cast: 

Jack Quaid (Nathan Caine), Amber Midthunder (Sherry Margrave), Ray Nicholson (Simon Greenly), Jacob Batalon (Roscoe Dixon), Betty Gabriel (Mincy Langston), Matt Walsh (Coltraine Duffy), Conrad Kemp (Andre Clark), Evan Hengst (Ben Clark), Craig Jackson (Nigel), and Lou Beatty Jr (Earl) Directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olsen.

Review: 

"We always wanted this to feel like a throwback, and action movies back in the day used to take a little bit more time to meet the characters. They weren’t so scared of losing the audience’s attention back then.”

You may or may know that Congenital insensitivity to pain is a rare condition that select people suffer from. Shockingly, it apparently is important for people to feel pain in their upbringing, mostly in childhood, because people really do need to know if a burn injury is bad. Strangely enough, there is a place in Sweden (Vittangi) that has a cluster of people with the condition. This is the fifth film from the directing duo of Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, who made their debut in Body (2014) after having first met at NYU. The movie was written by Lars Jacobson, who had previously written Day of the Dead: Bloodline (2017), and he also served as an executive producer on this film. It was Berk and Olsen who stood firm on having the film start out as long as it does (about 25 minutes) as a romantic comedy rather than the straightforward action that the script had. They also had Jack Quaid in their mind when making their own pass at the story because of his role on The Boys*. Perhaps not surprisingly, they have stated their intent in trying to grab the magic left by films such as Lethal Weapon (1987) and Die Hard (1988) when it came to being "really funny but grounded". 

Well, it has been a bit of while since I got to remind myself of Nobody (2021), which you might remember had an absurd level of violence for a thriller that had its own little twist upon those awakening to kicking ass. Here you get a movie that happens to set itself in the Christmas season (Santa suit robberies) in San Diego**. This film has its own particular twist to move onto the breach of the everyman type of movie, which may or may not work depending on one's level of patience for a movie (110 minutes) that cannot even end cleanly enough. But as an action movie that seems to take its cues from horror in for a particular effect, it works just enough for me to at least recommend it as a curiosity. It is the kind of movie you'll find one day in the pile of action movies when shopping (or, sigh, when looking at a streaming service) and believe, yea, that might work out for a drunken stumble someday.*** The brutality of the action sequences is at least satisfying because you have a lead who basically isn't meant to flinch at any point, and Quaid manages to fit the bill of everyman charm that has to roll on improvisation from the very get-go as one ripped out of the proverbial shell of a life. Quaid and Midthunder make a worthy enough pairing to at least set the trap that arises with making decisions because screw it, you just want to (this is mostly a way of saying that some decisions made by people can be a bit silly but never too stupid). For a film that wisely knows to not have much of a body count, Nicholson leads the group of adversaries with varying levels of effective menace that arises in wayward planning and temperament that is semi-effective. Batalon at least delivers a smidge of wisecracks to carry the movie along a tiny bit, as is the case with Batalon and Walsh. Honestly, I wonder if the movie could've leaned in even more as a comedy, since it barely seems to really need a "narrative pull " (out of the- you know) when one has decided to lean away from being a clear-cut action movie. As it stands, it is sometimes funny but not nearly as consistent as it might have been, particularly since, well, it stretches itself to actually finish to where it ends up. As a whole, the less one knows, the better when it comes to going with a semi-solid action movie that tries to roll in warmth and lands mostly in the sweet-spot for general entertainment. Feeling something for a hero that can't feel the pain is a worthwhile goal to accomplish in the long run.

Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.

*I'm sure at least one of you know what The Boys is.

**I've never visited San Diego, but it is not Los Angeles, so fuck yeah, go Padres. I know the movie was shot in South Africa but hey, whatever.

***Movie Night does not endorse drinking, particularly since the shots I once took on November 7, 2022 tastes like lime. Besides, soda is cheaper.

Upgrade.

Review #1093: Upgrade.

Cast: 
Logan Marshall-Green (Grey Trace), Betty Gabriel (Cortez), Harrison Gilbertson (Eron Keen), Benedict Hardie (Fisk), Melanie Vallejo (Asha Trace), Christopher Kirby (Tolan), Clayton Jacobson (Manny), Sachin Joab (Dr. Bhatia), Michael M. Foster (Jeffries), Richard Cawthorne (Serk), and Simon Maiden (STEM) Directed by Leigh Whannell.

Review: 
Admittedly, this is a film that came up on my radar of interest out of nowhere (as it had been out in America for over a week), but how could I not resist a science fiction film that also doubles as a body horror film? The end result of combining these two genres is a movie that turned out to be quite satisfying for my tastes. Within its low budget and b-movie sort of aim, Upgrade is unabashedly entertaining in its exploitation roots (with Whannell having served as the writer for the first three Saw films along with the Insidious series) without resorting to insulting the intelligence of its viewers. It feels like a cross between The Six Million Dollar Man, Death Wish, and RoboCop (1987), complete with a touch of dark humor that goes along with trying to tell a story of revenge that occasionally sprinkles itself with sci-fi. It manages to get the ball rolling around its middle parts with Marshall-Green and Maiden interacting with each other rather adeptly as man and AI, respectively. It isn't too particularly deep with its positions (aside from the occasional bit involving AI), but there is a certain enjoyment from how it moves itself without becoming too typical. The action and horror sequences are executed pretty well, looking pretty convincing with its movements for the most part without being too blurry or too gratuitous (if one is into that, anyway).

Marshall-Green is fairly effective, playing his every-man sort of role fairly handily, having a fine amount of timing when it comes to the action sequences or interacting with the other cast-mates that helps make the film (made in Australia) a pleasure to watch and elevates what could've been a generic hero role into something that works. Gabriel doesn't have as much time on screen to really make her role too particularly developed besides something you'd see in other films involving detectives pursuing the main lead, but she does a relatively fine job in making the character click enough without being too generic. Gilbertson certainly lends this inventor role a bit of closed off nature that clicks weirdly enough for his brief time on screen. The villains for the movie aren't too particularly involving, but Hardie does work well enough for what the film wants in its pursuit of bloody action. At 95 minutes, the movie has a solid pace to it that never stretches itself too artificially, knowing when and where to stop, with an ending that certainly clicks cleverly enough. It is a familiar sort of ride at times, but it is an enjoyable kind of ride most of the time to make a solid gem in my view.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.