Novocaine Review: An Electric Jack Quaid Headlines Gruesomely Goofy Action Comedy

Sometimes you go to the movies looking for Shakespeare, and sometimes you just want to watch Jack Quaid and Ray Nicholson beat the hell out of each other. The battle between good guy nepo babies with vaguely problematic dads, if you will. Really, that's all there is to it — we're simple people with simple tastes. It certainly helps matters that Jack Quaid has a seemingly infinite amount of charm, and he and Amber Midthunder have great chemistry together. And the fact that "Novocaine" is packed full of inventive action set pieces that are alternately gruesome, goofy, and sometimes even both at once. It may not be for everyone, but it kind of feels like the gold standard for this very specific brand of action comedy.

Nate Caine (Jack Quaid) is just another middle-management type, working as an assistant manager at a San Diego bank while pining after one of the tellers (Sherry, played by Amber Midthunder). But he has a secret superpower (or devastating disability, depending on how you look at it): He has a genetic disorder that makes it impossible for him to feel pain. And while that might seem like a pretty convenient way to go through life, it has a thousand different day-to-day implications that make it quite a cross to bear.

He can't eat solid food, for example, because he risks biting his tongue off and not realizing it, and he has to set timers to remind him to go to the bathroom, since his body won't signal to him when he needs to pee. People experience physical pain for a reason, you know. But after a life-changing date with Sherry, he gets the opportunity to put his lack of pain to good use. Because the very next morning, their bank is besieged by a trio of robbers all dressed as Santa, led by Simon (Ray Nicholson). When they take Sherry hostage, Nate will stop at nothing to get her back.

Throughout all of Nate's various pain-inducing escapades, it becomes very clear that "Novocaine" only works as well as it does because of Jack Quaid, fresh off his star-making turn in "The Boys," in the lead role. The schtick of him being about to feel no pain wouldn't stand a chance of lasting the entire length of the movie without his very specific acting choices. At times he's exasperated by everything he's being put through, but Nate has such a good attitude about it all that it balances out how shockingly violent the film can be. Ordinarily, the unlikely hero in an action comedy like this would react to getting, say, a crossbow bolt through the leg by letting out a high-pitched scream or passing out, but Nate's just ... mildly irritated that he can't pull it out, before resigning himself to walking around with an arrow jutting comically out the side of his thigh. Our guy is nothing if not a trooper.

The budding romance between Nate and Sherry is sweet and all, but once "Novocaine" gets going, it's pretty much non-stop action. Set piece after set piece, the movie never stops finding new and inventive ways for Nate to brutalize himself and others. Every object that once presented a potential danger is now a weapon, and Nate just his own collateral damage along the way. It helps that as an action film, it's executed on a small scale: This isn't Nate against an army of soldiers, just three bank robbers. So it's possible for "Novocaine" to build in the style of creative hand-to-hand combat that makes it a little more believable that he isn't just immediately shot in the head or otherwise permanently incapacitated. (Not that we're not willing to suspend our disbelief — after all, "Novocaine," like most of the best action comedies, exists in its own heightened reality.)

And all of the actors know exactly what type of film they're acting in, matching Quaid beat for beat. He and Amber Midthunder are charming together, and her "girl with a past" character is grounded enough to make their unexpected emotional connection pay off. Ray Nicholson brings a maniacal energy to the role of Simon, whose sociopathic tendencies allow him the kind of off-kilter line readings that make him not just your bog-standard bad guy. Matt Walsh, as one of the police officers tracking down the bank robbers, is delightfully bizarre, riffing on the bumbling cop persona. Only Jacob Batalan as Roscoe, Nate's gamer friend who is unwittingly roped into his shenanigans, feels a little bit as though he's only there because the plot needs him, and to provide more in-your-face comic relief. But even he grows on the audience with time.

"Novocaine" is a fresh, exciting action film that spares no expense in raising the stakes via some extremely horrific violence, some of which will probably have you watching the screen from behind your hands. But with the central performance of Jack Quaid, who is one of the most likable actors of his generation, it also has something that other action films often fall short on: genuine heart. Nate Caine is a character it's difficult not to root for, and the inventive ways he manages to mutilate himself into becoming a human weapon can't help but elicit a reaction. "Cute" probably isn't the right word to describe "Novocaine," but the way that it counterbalances its violence with an odd sense of sweetness gives it a flavor unique among action comedies.

"Novocaine" hits theaters on March 14, 2025.