Quite apart from wringing the last molecule of vividness from his freewheeling roster of loose cannons, he brings to his direction of Martin a finesse shared by only a few of the directors who have worked with the comedian-actor.

A funny and constantly surprising exercise in comic tension.

Martin's most adventurous film in many years, may be next best thing to a quick shot of nitrous oxide.

A screwball film noir with a lot of medium laughs and a few great big ones,

Martin is marvelous; through sheer charisma, he takes over certain scenes as if no one else is there.

Novocaine is neither funny enough to be a comedy, nor dark enough to be a true film noir. Like the drug of the title, it just kind of leaves you numb and anxious to taste the good stuff once again.

One moment it's farcical comedy, the next it's gruesome melodrama. The movie never finds the right tone.

Atkins has trouble keeping the tension high and the jokes rolling. Halfway through he begins tripping over the noir genre's dark rules, and in the end he veers off into a haze of romantic redemption that Billy Wilder and Nicholas Ray would have scoffed at.

There are a few priceless moments, like Dr. Sangster trying to work on a patient, while removing a hot pink pair of panties from a nearby chair, and the discovery of a stuffed bunny complete with a full set of dentures on his fiance's bed.

It's too bad the movie's intriguing effect wears off (so to speak) about two-thirds through.

Nothing is particularly believable here, but there are still a few moments of silly, sinister fun.

If Novocaine fulfilled the promise of its premise and cast, it could be great. As it is, the film is sabotaged by writer-director David Atkins' failure to set a consistent tone and follow through.

The absurd meets the violent meets the droll, and we just watch from the outside, never having been drawn in by anything resembling believable feelings or behavior.

The film is weighed down by the decision of director David Atkins to throw too much into the mix. The result is a serious problem of consistency.