Don Reviews "Novocaine"

When it comes to Novocaine, I am reminded of a quote from G.I. Jane: “Pain is your friend….The best thing about pain, it lets you know you are not dead yet”.  The main character in this film, Nate (Jack Quaid) is where this comes into play in the latest film from Directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen (who work together quite a bit. 

Nate actually has a rare genetic disorder that is a take on Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (or CIP), where people can not feel pain, but his is on another level where he also cannot feel heat or cold. Because of this, he lives a fairly secluded life and works as an Assistant Manager at a bank in San Diego.  His life gets turned upside down when he meets another employee named Sherry (Amber Midthunder), and after they become involved, three man come in and attempt to rob the place, taking Sherry hostage as part of their escape.  Nate decides to go after the robbers to save Sherry, even though he may not have anything but his condition to rely on.

For this type of film, the acting is fine; Quaid and Midthunder work well as the leads and have good chemistry.  I will add it is nice having veterans like Matt Walsh and Betty Gabriel as the detectives on their trail to try and bring the offenders to justice here, and they added to my enjoyment of this film.  It runs just a little over one hundred minutes, which was paced well and kept me interested.

Now to the crux of the review here: the plot.  Novocaine is not your thinking man’s mystery or love story, nor do I think it was meant to be.  This is a fun action film with a simple plot and is able to make its violence and graphic fight sequences funny.  There are several points where even I had to cringe as Nate not only gives the fight to the bad guys but also takes the punishment they bring to him, and that really is the genius of this film.  I understand what kind of film this is, but the only issue I had is that the little suspension of disbelief does stretch a bit more than it should; in fact, after a certain amount of injuries, certain parts of the body would not work or would even shut down whether or not the characters could feel the pain.  This is a fun film that brings  something new and innovative to its genre, but leave your dramatic expectations at the door and go see this film at about a twilight showing at the theaters.