2025 is set to be a year of action movie smash hits.Tom Cruise needs you to trust him one last timeinMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning next week, while Ana de Armas leadsJohn Wick spin-off Ballerinashortly after, and The Gardener, Nobody 2, and Americana are also due to arrive this year for action fans.
And that’s before you get into whether superhero movies or the likes ofJurassic Parkcount as ‘action movies’.
However, the action movie leading the charge thus far is the action-comedy Novocaine, starring Jack Quaid as a hapless hero whose only talent is that he feels no pain. Quaid starred in Novocaine shortly after sharing top billing with Sophie Thatcher in Companion,the best horror movie of the year so far.
Novocaine Stars Jack Quaid As A Man Who Feels No Pain
Alongside Quaid, Novocaine also stars Amber Midthunder (Prey), Ray Nicholson (Smile 2), and Jacob Batalon (Spider-Man) in this action caper, with Quaid’s character setting out to save Midthunder’s after she is kidnapped. While feeling no pain is a plus, being useless at everything else is sort of a drawback. And that’s the movie in a nutshell.
It’s also two for one nepo baby fun, with Quaid the son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, and Ray Nicholson the son of Jack Nicholson.
Novocaine has recently been added to Paramount Plus, where it has shot to the top of streaming charts. It’s currently in a head to head battle with Paddington in Peru for the number one movie of the week, while further down the list Prospect (led by Quaid’s Companion co-star Sophie Thatcher) has enjoyed a major bounce afterThe Last of Usdue toPedro Pascal’s Joel-like role as a surrogate father figure to a teenage girlnavigating a dangerous, infected dystopia.
It was already a modest hit, grossing $34 millon off a $18 million budget, and was a critical success too. It’s currently sitting at a Critic Score of 81 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and a slightly higher Audience Score of 85 percent. Word of mouth will likely spread now it’s available on streaming, and could see Novocaine become a modern cult classic.
In other movie news, we recently discovered that thenext Mario moviewon’t be going down the numbered sequel route, but will insteadbe named after maybe the best Mario game of all time. Try to guess what it is before you click the link. Go on, I dare ya.
