“Novocaine” is a one-joke comedy action film which goes too long and violent in my humble opinion. While it generates some funny moments from its exaggerated comic story premise, the movie is also often blatantly violent as its hero endures a lot of brutal actions via a certain disability of his, and its rather uneven mix of comedy and violence becomes tiresome especially during its last act.

First, let me explain a bit about the medical condition of its hero. Due to his congenital neurological disorder, Nathan Caine (Jack Quaid) cannot feel physical pain at all, and that has been a big obstacle in his daily life. Although he has earned his living for himself while working as a bank employee, he must always be careful about any possible physical damage he is unable to sense, and we observe how much he is constantly careful about his disorder at the beginning of the story.

Except one online friend with whom he has often played a video game, Caine, whose nickname is incidentally “Novocaine”, understandably does not have much social life outside his work, but he has actually paid some attention a young female employee in his workplace. She is Sherry Margrave (Amber Midthunder), and he finally gets sort of Meet Cute moment between them, but this moment is not exactly pleasant due to the latest injury inflicted on him.

Anyway, Sherry later suggests that they should have a lunch together outside, and Caine cannot possibly say no, though he has to be careful about his eating. He is not allowed to eat anything solid because he might chew or cut his tongue without sensing that at all, but, what do you know, he finds himself taking a bit of risk when Sherry recommends a bit of delicious cherry pie to him. Even after he fully reveals his medical condition, she is still quite willing to spend more time with him, and that surely makes Caine feel all the happier.

However, there subsequently comes a very unexpected situation. In the middle of their working hour, a trio of gunmen disguised as Santa Clauses suddenly break into the bank, and, after killing the bank manager, they take away a lot of cash in the bank safe. In the middle of this emergency, these bank robbers also kidnap Sherry, and it seems to Caine that he is the only one who can chase after the bank robbers right now.

Needless to say, Caine soon comes to realize that his medical condition can actually be an advantage in this situation, and the movie uses his disability as a good excuse for a series of intense action scenes decorated with many different physical damages. As sustaining more and more physical damage without any pain at all, our meek hero surely feels invincible to say the least, and he sometimes takes a shot of adrenaline just for keeping himself boosted to the end.

Later in the story, the situation gets more complicated for him. As the bank robbers come to learn more about their unexpected opponent, the police also go after Caine as another prime suspect in the case, and Caine has to depend a bit on several other people including that online friend of his, who comes to help him more than expected even though they have never met each other in person.

And the movie continues to serve us with more action scenes, which will make you wince at times for good reasons. During the action scene involved with a hulking neo-Nazi tattooist, Caine willingly uses some pieces of shattered glass for fighting against this big dude, and you will be alternatively amused and horrified by how he does that. In case of another action sequence unfolded inside a certain shabby place full of booby traps, we get a hilarious moment when Caine must feign to feel pain just for holding one of the bank robbers longer for his possible survival.

However, the movie eventually spins its wheel during the last act as reminding us more of how superficial it is in terms of story and character. While a certain big plot turn in the middle of the story is not particularly surprising, the movie also becomes more excessive during its obligatory climax action sequence, which sometimes feels like being tacked on the story just for more running time.

At least, we can all appreciate the game efforts from the main cast members. Jack Quaid, who has been more notable during last several years, gives a likable comic performance as diligently carrying the film to the end, though I must point out that he was more impressive in “Companion” (2025). He and Amber Midthunder have a nice chemistry during their several scenes early in the film, and we can clearly sense why Caine is willing to risk a lot for the woman he only gets to know a bit. In case of several other notable performers including Ray Nicholson, Jacob Batalon, Betty Gabriel, and Matt Walsh, they are mostly under-utilized due to their colorless supporting parts, and I must point out that Nicholson, who is incidentally the son of Jack Nicholson, was much more menacing when he briefly appeared in “Smile 2” (2024).

“Novocaine” is directed by Dan Berk and Robert Olson, who previously made “Villains” (2019). Here in this film, they did a competent job of handling the action scenes in the film, but the result is less funny and engaging then “Villains” for its weak narrative and thin characterization. While it is sometimes too violent to be funny, it is also too superficial to be really funny, and I was only left with numb and mixed feelings in the movie. I was not bored at least, but folks, they could do better than this.