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Now Playing: Novocaine

No pain, no gain

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Gore is an old friend for fans of action movies. After all, what’s an action movie without broken bones, torn flesh, or excessive amounts of blood? For most moviegoers, the occasional gory scene is manageable. That’s because movie characters, like us, fear pain. Imagine that look of fear before a knife plunges into skin or that split-second of trepidation before the reluctant hero fires a gun. Pain is a friend that gives the audience some time to prepare for a graphic scene. And yet, pain is exactly what’s missing in Novocaine.

No pain

Novocaine is about a man who can’t feel pain. Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) suffers from a congenital insensitivity to pain. His entire life is dedicated to staying away from potentially harmful situations. He can’t even eat solid foods out of fear of unknowingly biting his own tongue off.

His cushy life changes when he meets the girl of his dreams, Sherry (Amber Midthunder), who shows him a life outside of his bubble. However, his new life is abruptly taken from him when a bank robbery sees Sherry kidnapped. Desperate, Caine goes on an action-packed hunt for Sherry and the bank robbers.

No gain

If you’ve watched your fair share of action films before, then you’ve probably seen a story like Novocaine before. Minus the inability to feel pain, Novocaine is your boilerplate fish-out-of-water story about an unlikely hero getting into dangerous situations.

Though the film doesn’t reinvent the wheel, it’s anything but tiring. It knows which strings to pull and at what time. From the first ten minutes, Novocaine gets you invested in Nathan Caine’s predicament and his blossoming affection for Sherry. Though the two just started dating, it seems believable that Caine would risk life and limb to rescue Sherry from gun-happy robbers.

Quaid’s and Midthunder’s performances carry this dynamic throughout the entire runtime. But besides those two, a lot of the applause goes to Ray Nicholson who plays Simon, the leader of the bank robbers. Once again, Nicholson is unparalleled in performing as a villain you just love to hate.

To be fair, everyone in this movie deserves flowers. Despite the simplicity of the story, you’re still hooked for the whole movie. It’s what I’d call a cozy action movie. It doesn’t matter if you’ve heard of the story before. It’s still the perfect film to watch when you just want to turn down the stress of daily life for a bit.

Prepare to get shocked

Now, let’s talk about the action. Normally, I can hang with the big boys when it comes to gore. However, unlike its contemporaries, Novocaine takes things to the next level.

First of all, the film makes no qualms about showing the gnarliest of situations in all their glory. If you watch Novocaine, you will see bones sticking out, fingernails getting pulled, and flesh going inside deep friers. It’s just that gory.

Besides the raw imagery, you’ll notice how the anticipation of pain helps prepare us for an impeding scene with a lot of gore. This is mostly because the movie does not allow you to anticipate pain. Because the main character can’t feel pain, he does not experience any hesitation of subjecting his body to the most gruesome of scenarios. For example, where a normal person would normally hesitate before using a knife to dig a bullet out of a fresh wound, he just does it with no warning.

It’s a wonderful shock of adrenaline for action fans who’ve grown inured to the standard fare of gory scenes. Instead of alienating the audience, the unconventional action actually adds to how fresh the film feels, especially for fans of the genre. It’s a must-watch!

Novocaine opens in theaters starting March 12.

Entertainment

Street Fighter special look: Blanka vs. Ryu

Jason Momoa, Andrew Koji’s characters face off

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Paramount Pictures has released a new special look for Street Fighter featuring Jason Momoa and Andrew Koji.

The short, minute-long clip shows the actors’ respective characters, Blanka and Ryu, in battle.

It opens with a chained prisoner struck by extreme electrical charges, transforming into the green-skinned, electricity-infused Blanka.

He unleashes a fierce roar. Meanwhile, Ryu drops into a fighting stance, but tells Blanka he does not want to fight him.

Forced to defend himself, Ryu then fires a signature Hadouken fireball towards Blanka, as the teaser cuts to the Street Fighter title card.

Street Fighter debuts in cinemas starting October 14. It is directed by Kitao Sakurai and stars an ensemble cast that includes Noah Centineo as Ken Masters, Callina Liang as Chun-Li, Joe “Roman Reigns” Anoai as Akuma, and Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as Balrog, among others.

The film is set in 1993 when estranged Street Fighters Ryu and Ken Masters are thrown into combat when Chun-Li recruits them for the next World Warrior Tournament.

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Now Playing: Spider-Man: Brand New Day

It’s a must watch for Spidey fans who want to see Peter Parker enter his sad boy era.

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The Holland-led Spider-Man trilogy is one of my favorite franchises in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Compared to other series with admittedly disjointed plots, all of Spidey’s storylines have a clear thread leading from one to the next. Since the fourth entries after trilogies are historically lackluster, I had a lot of trepidation heading into Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Thankfully, all those worries were unfounded. Brand New Day follows the same throughline as its predecessors, once again reinforcing Spider-Man as the strongest franchise that Marvel offers fans today.

A brand new day indeed

Coming from No Way Home, Brand New Day still has Peter Parker live a new life as a literal nobody where no one remembers who he is. So begins his existence as just Spider-Man with no friends or family.

When a new and unseen threat ravages through New York City, Spidey starts to wish that he still had friends to help him out, which leads him on an inevitable collision course with Ned and MJ. Ironically, it also leads him to other characters in the city, including the Hulk and the Punisher.

A cacophony of villains

When I first saw the trailer, I was worried about the astounding number of villains from the get-go. After all, one of the biggest problems in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, the most maligned entry in Spider-Man movie history, was the villains. Though far from the movie’s biggest problem, having too many bad guys without a solid plot led to its terrible reception. You can see why Brand New Day’s trailer raises some flags.

If you were thinking the same thing, Brand New Day does indeed have a cohesive plot. Everything flows neatly into one another. Each emotional beat of Peter feeling for his solitude mixes well with the action. In here, fight scenes feel like they have a purpose.

And there is a big bad here. It’s not just a collection of guys that Spidey has to go through. That big bad, who shall not be named at this time, doesn’t feel like just a placeholder for Peter’s internal struggles. They have a character of their own and their own struggles to solve. I wouldn’t say they’re at the level of Loki just yet, but they definitely have a better go at it than most of the MCU’s other villains.

Marvel’s New York City finally debuts

Despite being a prime location since 2012’s Avengers, New York City never really felt like the quintessential city for superheroes in the comics. In the movies, the city was just another city to be ravaged when a new villain comes along.

For the first time, Brand New Day makes the city feel like a lived-in world with a bunch of superheroes living in the neighborhood. And they do pop up.

Does Peter have a scientific problem that only a very specific hero can solve? It’s a good thing Bruce Banner is just around the corner. Does he need some muscle? Well, the Punisher is skulking around somewhere. Plus, there’s even a succinct reason why other superheroes can’t help out.

In this way, Brand New Day presents itself more like a comic book series than a one-off movie. It’s like following the story alone from issue to issue. It’s not the most perfect adaptation of the landmark city, but it goes a long way from just another ravaging of New York.

Peter’s sadness

Everything here hinges on Peter’s loneliness. Despite meeting a trove of characters across the cinematic universe, Peter yearns for time with his loved ones. But they’re gone.

Unlike the past three films where he always had someone to go home to, he has no one here. Tony Stark is dead. Aunt May is gone. Happy has gone to parts unknown. Ned and MJ have no memory of him. Brand New Day has a way of making you feel for his aches, whether the way he still keeps track of MJ or some physiological changes as a result of his predicament.

It also helps that the movie’s big bad has similar motivations. Both serve as perfect mirrors against each other, elevating both their stories effectively. And that’s all I’ll say about that.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a few steps behind from being a perfect Marvel movie, but it’s still an extremely strong part of the Spider-Man mythos. The trilogy, now quadrilogy, remains Marvel’s most consistent franchises to date. It’s an absolute must-watch.

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UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony hits Makati in October

Determination arrives in October.

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For so small of a game, UNDERTALE quickly made it into the gaming world’s hall of fame. Despite being only a decade old, the small title has had a major influence for modern-day gamers because of its unique gameplay, its lo-fi art, and, of course, its catchy soundtrack. If you’re a fan of UNDERTALE’s soundtrack, a unique concert experience is headed your way.

On October 17, Film Concerts PH, in partnership with SOHO Live, is hosting UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony at the Proscenium Theater in Rockwell, Makati.

The concert will be performed by the Filharmonika Orchestra and conducted by Thanapol Setabrahmana. Personally curated by creator Toby Fox and developed by Lambert Jackson with Materia Music, the concert experience showcases the game’s most recognizable tunes laid over gameplay footage playing simultaneously. Plus, for the world tour, the experience will have expanded scoring.

In the game, you play as a small child stuck in the mysterious Underground filled with interesting characters and monsters. Unlike traditional RPGs, UNDERTALE asks players to choose between building relationships and chasing after wins. It’s a unique experience that’s defined by whether you chose to make friends or fought your way to the top. It teaches players to value different ways to solve problems, all while showering them with its one-of-a-kind humor.

Pre-sales for the concert, exclusively for members of the Film Concerts PH community, start on August 4. Public sales, however, will start on August 11 via Ticketmelon.

SEE ALSO: The hunt begins: The Witcher in Concert hits Manila with surprises in tow

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