Novocaine is an action-comedy movie released in theaters on March 14 about a man named Nathan Caine (see the joke there?) who cannot feel pain. After the girl of his dreams is taken hostage during a bank robbery, he stops at nothing to bring her back, using his inability to feel pain to his advantage.  

Played by Jack Quaid, Nathan is portrayed as an awkward and unsociable guy who leads an unremarkable life as an assistant bank manager. The movie opens showing you the monotony of his day-to-day life and his internal strife for something more. He soon forms a connection with his coworker Sherry, played by Amber Midthunder, who brings him the happiness that he previously lacked just from one day spent together. Her kidnapping is what drives him on the insane adventure the movie takes you on. 

I did find it strange that Nathan decided to risk his life over someone he had met for one day, but then again, this was the first time in a while (or maybe ever) that he felt this sort of connection with someone. It is still unrealistic, but this is not a movie that takes itself too seriously, which I like.  

Quaid adds a lot of charm to the character, who I found very enjoyable on screen. The script is filled to the brim with witty one-liners, which are good for the most part, but at times felt a little forced and took me out of the intense fight scenes they were shoehorned into.  

You of course can’t talk about Novocaine without mentioning the action, which is really the backbone of the movie. The fight scenes are a lot of fun as we see Caine use his disability to his advantage, sticking his hand into a deep fryer to grab a gun and punching broken glass to make a deadly pair of fists, just to name a few. There are a lot of these clever scenes that give the movie its edge.  

What was disappointing to me is that a good chunk of these scenes were already shown to me in the promotional material for the movie, for which there was a lot of. At least for me, teases for the movie were all over my Instagram feed and often popped up on YouTube ads. These ads featured a lot of these crazy scenes so when they came up in the movie, it sadly didn’t have the effect it was supposed to. I wish the movie kept more of those scenes hidden for a nice surprise. 

Otherwise, Novocaine was perfectly enjoyable. The plot was pretty thin, but again, this is not a movie that wants to take itself seriously. It is meant to be a wild ride, and it succeeded at just that. 

Score: 6/10