Novocaine (2025) is directed by Dan Berk & Robbery Olson and features a script from Lars Jacobson. It stars Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Jacob Batalon, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh, Conrad Kemp, Evan Hengst, Craig Jackson, Lou Beatty Jr., and Garth Collins. The story focuses on Nate (Quaid), a dorky bank manager suffering from a rare genetic condition that makes him incapable of feeling pain. He lives a quiet, uneventful life that mainly revolves around working and playing video games with his best friend, Roscoe (Batalon), but everything changes when he meets his new coworker, Sherry (Midthunder), and the two quickly fall in love. The morning after their explosive first date, the bank is robbed by a madman named Simon (Nicholson) and his ruthless crew of thugs. To cover his escape, Simon takes Sherry as a hostage. With the police far behind and in no position to catch Simon and his crew, Nate wages a desperate one-man war in a bid to save who he sees as the love of his life. With no kind of combat experience to speak of, he’s forced to rely on the one thing he does best: taking a beating.

Jack Quaid once again proves to be a charismatic and likable leading man with whom the nerds of the world can easily identify. The thing is, he also displays enough range to work as a more traditional action hero. It’s not a particularly meaty or original role, but it’s the kind that Jack Quaid feels like he was born to play. It helps that his chemistry with Midthunder mostly feels like a win. The problem is that the film reveals something about her character far too early that is not only unoriginal but undermines the strong romantic edge of Nate’s crusade. It’s implied to the viewer much too soon that Nate’s quest is most likely doomed, but he doesn’t know that, so it creates a dynamic where it’s tough for the viewer to revel alongside him in his successes. Simply saving this reveal for later in the film would’ve made Nate’s crusade significantly more fun, but it would have also provided the film’s back half with at least one surprising moment. As for Ray Nicholson’s performance as the villain, he shows a lot of promise but still feels like an actor in the process of perfecting his craft. He achieves a special kind of zaniness that reminds the viewer (in the best ways) of some of his father’s most memorable roles, but it’s ultimately a very surface-level performance. Granted, the script does him no favors, but it seems he thought the more he yelled, the better his performance would be. It gets him somewhere, just not very far. 

The film’s premise is undeniably cool on paper, but despite mainly delivering what you’d expect, it doesn’t breed any action that feels particularly new. Action movie protagonists with unrealistically high pain tolerances are already par for the course, so it feels like Novocaine doesn’t take this element far enough to stand out action-wise. I also didn’t particularly enjoy the choice to include a heavy-handed focus on some really nasty gore related to Nate’s various injuries. I suppose a film like this requires a certain wince factor no matter what, but its extreme nature just doesn’t mesh well with the more fun-loving tone. 

The film is at its best when it focuses more on the inherent comedy of its premise. The script allows these moments to unfold in natural ways that often see Nate’s enemies hilariously caught off guard by his lack of pain. In one particularly funny sequence that would’ve been a missed opportunity not to include in some form, Nate is tortured and forced to fake excruciating pain in order to buy time so he can be rescued before being killed. Whatever the film lacks, its protagonist remains endlessly compelling/comical due to his unique relationship with pain. 

Overall, this is a fun action movie with a unique premise and a charismatic lead performance—nothing more, nothing less. However, it still features its fair share of filmmaking blunders, including tonal inconsistencies, a problematic script, and action that’s often more frustrating than exciting. That being said, if you liked the trailer, the movie delivers the basic goods. It falls somewhere between stupid and entertaining – a guilty pleasure, for lack of better words. B-