Tag Archives: jack-quaid

Novocaine

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The new action/comedy Novocaine was released this week starring The Boys star Jack Quaid. Quaid played a character that could not feel any pain and winds up in the middle of a bank robbery.

This movie was extremely violent and Jack Quaid does a wonderful job as our lead protagonist. It was impressive how much you could relate to Quaid’s character Nate Caine considering he had this ability to not feel any pain. Everything that Nate said made sense to me and I could understand why he made the choices that he made.

Amber Midthunder played Nate’s love interest, Sherry. They had great chemistry in the film and you could believe that Nate goes to the extremes that he does when Sherry gets snatched by the bank robbers.

There were some truly brutal moments in the film, bad enough that some of them reminded me of the animated Invincible, and if you know anything about that show, you know that it is very gory and bloody. Novocaine seemed to take inspiration with some of the things that they did to Nate or the others in the cast.

It was funny several times when Nate would be injured and he would not feel anything. This is a SPOILER if you have not seen the trailers, but Jack took a swinging spiked ball to the back and just looked at it and said what was that. I t was funny.

Some parts of the story require suspension of disbelief, but I do not have a problem with that when you have a character who can not feel pain. The writers used this in several very interesting ways, in ways that I never would have thought about.

Jacob Batalon, who played Ned in the MCU Spider-Man movies, played Nate’s online gamer buddy, and, though he spent much of the time in the movie on the phone where we do not see him, his presence is welcome and his comedic timing is excellent. He worked very well with Jack Quaid despite not sharing much screentime together.

Novocaine was an enjoyable film with plenty of comedy and plenty of violent action. It feels a little long, but there are many great moments inside of the 110 minutes.

3.8 stars

The Boys S4 E1, E2, E3

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Spoilers

“Department of Dirty Tricks”

“Life Among the Septics”

“We’ll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here”

Season four of The Boys dropped on Amazon Prime today with the first three episodes. I had only planned on watching the first one, but, unsurprisingly, I cruised through all three available. The show has not missed a step.

Homelander is probably the most complex, intriguing and fascinating antagonist on TV today. Antony Starr is at both times heart-breaking and terrifying as the lead super hero in Vaught’s world. His performance is tremendous ever minute he is on screen. Homelander is hateable, but there is something about him that makes you almost feel for him.

His relationship with his son, Ryan, causes such confusion for him because he does not know what it means to be a father and the things that he believes are important simply are not. You can see that Ryan is slowly coming to the realization to what his father is really like. I do not get the feeling that Ryan is going to be corrupted like I thought at the end of season three with his little smile when Homelander blew that protester’s head off.

Hughie has an interesting arc to kick off this season dealing with his father’s stroke and the return of his absentee mother. Again, this is something very relatable and human in a world of craziness and super powers. Hughie has always been the heart of the show and he continues to carry that mantel.

Mother’s Milk, on the other hand, is not handling the mantel of leadership very well. First of all, I had to look up on Google if the show had recast the role because when I first saw MM in episode one this season, he did not look anything like the actor I remembered. I found an article online asking if he had been recast, so obviously I was not the only person thinking that. However, Laz Alonso is back, just without the beard and thinner. He really does look differently. He is also struggling with the lead role with the Boys.

I’m not quite sure that I have been enjoying the arc of Frenchie and Kimiko so far. I am not sure where this came from and it feels as if it were tossed in just this season.

The new characters are something else. I swear that Firecracker is Marjorie Taylor Greene. A right wing conspiracy theorist spreading lies across the internet. And then there is Sister Sage, the smartest woman (excuse me, person) on earth. She is a real manipulator who I would keep an eye on.

This show is not hiding its politics at all. The metaphors of Homelander and the Seven being the right wing/MAGA of this country is not hidden very well. It might be a bit too obvious.

This show continues to be one of the best one on TV. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here.