After seeing the romantic action comedy LOVE HURTS, the new movie NOVOCAINE feels pretty familiar, though still manages to be fun and engaging thanks largely to it’s leading man, Jack Quaid (THE BOYS).  In the film, Quaid plays Nathan Caine, a sincere and cautious bank manager who lives a simple and lonely life, working and playing computer games in his spare time.  He also has a unique medical condition, in that he can’t feel pain.  While some may think this is cool, it comes with dangers as he must pain-proof everything around him, and can’t even chew solid food for fear of biting off his own tongue.  Nathan shows an interest in bank teller Sherry (Amber Midthunder), who also seems to be interested in him.  They go out on a date, things move fast and it appears there may be a serious spark between the two of them.  The next day, the bank is robbed by three men dressed in Santa Claus outfits, and they take Sherry as a hostage.  Realizing the police aren’t likely to get her back, Nathan decides to take matters into his own hands, using his unique gift to give him an edge over the bad guys.

While certain aspects of NOVOCAINE seem like a superhero story, the film doesn’t go that way as much as you might expect.  Nathan Caine never really goes past the awkward lonely guy persona, and his various fights with other folks are always sloppy and show him clearly outmatched, even if he does have a strong advantage over the other guys.  The film also takes its time getting to the meat of the story, showing the romantic subplot between Nathan and Sherry for a solid length of time, almost like a romantic comedy that is secretly building up to something else.  Once the action beats kick in, the film moves pretty frantically and leans more into the broad comedy and sometimes intense gore.  This could almost be a horror movie if it pushed itself just a little further, and in some ways I wished it had gone a little further in certain scenes, really shocking the audience in unexpected ways.  What we get is pretty much what you’d expect from this type of film, though there is a rather big twist that happens early on and changes some of the story dynamics in a way that almost seems unrecoverable.

This movie works for one reason – Jack Quaid, who is very likable as the lead, and finds a charm in playing Nathan that is reminiscent of 1980s comedies.  As much as I love Ke Huy Quan, Quaid finds a more balanced and effective read as this unlikely action hero here than Quan did in LOVE HURTS, which is a very similar type of movie.  This may not be an instant classic for the young actor, but it should help prove that Quaid has the chops to be a leading man more often.  Amber Midthunder is an interesting choice for his love interest, and I found her character to be pretty grounded for what it was, even if she’s a very different personality than the man she’s supposedly falling in love with.  The two actors have good chemistry, and it almost makes you wonder if this could have worked as just a straightforward romantic comedy.  Ray Nicholson (son of Jack) is playing the main bad guy here, and he’s okay, though I feel like the script was holding him back a bit.  I wanted the villain to be something really terrifying and crazy, and instead it feels like a very by-the-numbers baddie.  Jacob Batalon (the newer SPIDER-MAN movies) plays Nathan’s gaming buddy who shows up late in the film, and provides some amusing comic relief at a time where the film needed it most.  He’s used sparingly, but is a welcome addition to the cast.

NOVOCAINE is a fun and intriguing concept that works on some levels and falls short on others.  I wanted this film to be more insane and wild than it ended up being, and while there are certainly memorable scenes that will illicit big laughs and wincing reactions to violence, it just has the sense it’s holding back more than it should.  Jack Quaid definitely helps make it an entertaining ride, albeit one you may forget rather quickly.

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