Novocaine

Not being able to feel pain isn’t exactly a superpower, but this film makes a case for why it could be!

Inspired by the wave of action flicks released post-John Wick, Novocaine sees Nathan “Novocaine” Caine (Jack Quaid), an assistant manager at a local credit union, after he takes it upon himself to rescue his work crush, Sherry Margrave (Amber Midthunder), from a gang of bank robbers who have kidnapped her. Suffering from CIPA, or congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis — a rare condition that means he feels no pain whatsoever — Nathan is unaffected by the kind of wounds that would force most people to seek out immediate medical attention, making him the only person capable of saving Sherry’s life. Putting himself on a collision course with a group of criminals who have far more going on than they initially let on, Nathan recruits his gamer buddy Roscoe Dixon (Jacob Batalon) to his cause and dives headfirst into a world full of danger, driven only by love, justice, and a misguided sense of invincibility that may be Nathan’s undoing.

Billed as a straight-up action comedy, Novocaine starts in a much lower gear than its marketing would have you believe, with its cringe-worthy action gags barely a priority during the film’s first act — a decision I ended up appreciating. Choosing instead to take the time to build its characters by giving audiences a surprisingly solid rom-com of sorts before getting into the thick of things, Novocaine eventually gives way to some wickedly unhinged action scenes that would make John Wick proud, showing how physically able Jack Quaid is as well as how talented Novocaine’s filmmakers can be. Throw in some likable acting from everyone involved — Jack Quaid and Amber Midthunder especially — and some thoughtful but admittedly still underdeveloped moments that touch on the real medical condition Nathan’s character has, and this one becomes better than I expected while still successfully satisfying my craving for action.

Unfortunately, Novocaine‘s solid fight scenes aren’t enough to keep a film like this afloat, and once the bones start breaking and the blood starts flying, Novocaine’s forgettable narrative didn’t always work for me, making the wait for the film’s next awesome action beat an incredibly frustrating one. Sure, there’s a slight twist that happens with one of the main characters midway through that actually caught me by surprise (though I’m sure I’m in the minority with that one not seeing it coming), but other than this reveal, there isn’t anything super interesting going on that pushes the movie forward outside of the promise of more action and laughs, with even those starting to get stale by the end of it all. Luckily, Jack Quaid’s complete commitment to his usual everyman role, as well as the believable relationships he holds with the characters around him, saves Novocaine more than once, ultimately making this one feel slightly undercooked yet still entirely serviceable as a moviegoing experience.

Though this one does take a while to get to the violence its wild premise promises, once Novocaine gets going, there’s a lot of fun to be had, especially with the way its inventive action scenes play out and how its fun script gives us characters who are closer to being three-dimensional people than most films of this kind usually offer. Novocaine knows what we all came to the theater to see and most definitely delivers, but with a story that barely holds things together and some pacing issues that are never fully resolved, it’s a less-than-perfect film that’s fortunately still worth seeing.