Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Python Hyena Novocaine (2001): Dir: David Atkins / Cast: Steve Martin, Helena Bonham Carter, Elias Koteas, Laura Dern, Scott Caan: Very disturbing and sometimes unpleasant black comedy about dentistry with an underlining theme of numbing pain associated with the job and symbolic with the screenplay. Steve Martin plays a dentist engaged to his hygienist until Helena Bonham Carter plunks down in his chair. She is obviously bad news and when her brother storms in threatening his life he realizes that he has gotten himself in too deep. It gets even more complicated when he discovers a dead body in his house. Intriguing concept full of plot twists with director David Atkins exploring the world of dentistry. Martin is seen as a guy who apparently took his ordinary life for granted until it spirals out of control leaving him with no other choice than to begin again. Carter is wonderfully mysterious whose motives are not always clear until the conclusion. Laura Dern is well cast as the sexually aggressive hygienist. Elias Koteas plays Martin's drunken brother whose initial appearance conceals alternative motives that lead to severe consequences and disturbance. Scott Caan plays Carter's enraged and violent brother who confronts Martin at his practice and threatens him. Intelligent dark comedy about careless risks and consequences as well as supplying a useful dose of dental knowledge. Score: 8 / 10

SnoopyStyle Dr. Frank Sangster (Steve Martin) is a straight-laced dentist engaged to his assistant Jean Noble (Laura Dern). Pat (Lynne Thigpen) is the office manager. Then sexy patient Susan Ivey (Helena Bonham Carter) comes looking for prescription drugs. He prescribes 5 pills but she scrams 50 out of the pharmacist. He constantly tries to bail out his slacker brother Harlan (Elias Koteas). Then Susan comes back pulling him into a web of danger and her handsy criminal brother Duane (Scott Caan).This one didn't make me laugh once. It could have been an interesting crime noir but this needs to strip away the attempts at comedy. It also needs to be darker and more intense. Director David Atkins's amateur skills aren't good enough. Also Frank's lies don't make much sense either and his narration that he wants to see Susan again doesn't really solve it. It's just constructed poorly.

dead47548 A very, very fun little film. It's got a pretty simple noir story but it executes it so flawlessly. It's pretty quick paced, so you never lose interest, but it isn't quick enough to where it loses the audience. I've always enjoyed Steve Martin's comedic talents, but it was great to see him in a much more mellow role. Helena Bonham Carter was absolutely amazing, as always. It's pretty hard to make me fall in love with a drug addict, but she did exactly that. Easily the most, well only, adorable drug addict I've ever seen. Laura Dern is, of course, also great. In what I've come to expect from her, she becomes so immersed into her character that you don't even realize she's acting. Elias Koteas was very good as well. I also really loved the twist. It had a great, mysterious build up to it throughout the film, and was completely unpredictable. One of the rare times that I was genuinely shocked by a twist in a mystery. But, for some odd reason, they felt the need to completely spoon-feed you how everything happened...about 15 minutes after you know everything that happened. My only other complaint were the very gimmicky x-ray shots used throughout. They felt extremely unnecessary and really drew me out of the film. Other than those two things though, I really loved it. Just remarkably fun and easy to watch.

ONenslo If this movie had been labeled "A disturbing modern film noir," I would not have been expecting to be amused or entertained, and it would not have ruined my evening the way it did. True, I admired the direction and production values even as I loathed everything else and almost everyone in it. After about ten minutes I said, "I hope I stop hating this pretty soon," and after another twenty minutes I just quit trying to watch it. If I'd had any reason to suspect that I would be seeing a creepy violent Blood Simple or Red Rock West type of drama instead of a "comedy" of any kind it would have been a different matter entirely. I knew a Steve Martin movie was a crapshoot but this possibly interesting and obviously well made crime drama was appallingly mislabled. BEWARE!!!