By George & Josh Bate
Jack Quad is everywhere nowadays. After starring as Hughie on the hit Prime Video series The Boys, Quaid has developed a sprawling presence across film and television. Star Trek: Lower Decks, Oppenheimer, Scream, My Adventures with Superman, and, most recently, Companion are just some of the numerous projects the son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan has starred in as he quickly becomes an industry favorite. Next up for the actor is Novocaine, an action comedy with a clever premise and innovative action that is our biggest surprise of 2025 to date.
From directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen (Significant Other, Villains), Novocaine stars Jack Quaid as Nathan Caine, a mild-mannered and sheltered assistant bank manager. Nathan suffers from a rare genetic disorder called CIP (congenital insensitivity to pain), which prevents from experiencing any kind of physical pain. Isolated following a difficult childhood due to the disorder, Nathan finally finds someone important in his life as he develops an intimate connection with his co-worker Sherry (played by Prey’s Amber Midthunder). Things quickly go awry for the potential couple, however, as Sherry is taken hostage by a gang of vicious bank robbers. Emboldened by his newfound love for Sherry and taking full advantage of his imperviousness to pain, Nathan goes on a hunt for the bank robbers and tries to rescue the girl of his dreams.
Novocaine bolsters a truly clever and unique premise. The idea of an action movie starring a man is an easy sell and opens the door to all sorts of action sequences and comedic moments. In an era in which action movies are continually topping one another in quality of combat, with John Wick, Mission: Impossible, and The Raid just some of the projects elevating the standards of the genre, Novocaine actually manages to do something different as an action film.
The filmmakers take full advantage of the clever premise, which affords plenty of innovative action sequences and funny moments. These aren’t the intricate shootouts and clashes of seasoned assassins in the John Wick franchise, but, rather, action that is messy and raw. Quaid’s Nathan Caine character isn’t a trained assassin hiding some shady background behind a disguise of a bank manager. He is an underdog with a debilitating disability, who finds a way to turn his disability into an ability to find the one person who made him feel whole. As such, despite having no fighting experience, Nathan heads into action sequences with a unique advantage. His inability to feel pain is explored to its fullest extent by the filmmakers, stretching the concept to its limit to deliver gruesome and hilarious action scenes over and over again.
Given Nathan can’t experience pain, he puts himself into all sorts of situations that would be impossible for a human without CIP. From putting his hand in a boiling hot deep fat fryer to retrieve a pistol to punching pieces of glass so he can have glass pieces sticking out of his knuckles, Nathan finds countless ways to utilize his “superhero” power (as one character terms it). Because Nathan goes through situations that would elicit unimaginable pain for 99.9% of people, each action sequence carries with it a tense, wincing quality. Imagine a moment in a typical action film where the lead experiences a significant injury and amplify that tenfold to begin to understand the sort of visceral reactions Novocaine elicits. In turn, the film proves to be quite an immersive viewing experience as it activates physiologically in ways few, if any, movies have ever done.
This immersiveness is coupled with a sense of humor embedded in every action sequence. Novocaine won’t necessarily elicit audible laughs every second, but there’s a sense of morbid humor that is tapped into every time Nathan does something that, for an ordinary person, would elicit excruciating pain. A particularly funny scene unfolds as Quaid’s character is being tortured by an adversary. As Nathan can’t feel pain, he feigns his reactions to the torture methods in a hilarious way. Never would one ever expect to find a funny torture scene, and here Novocaine is with a funny torture scene.
It’s moments like this that make Novocaine the definition of a crowd-pleaser. In a way, the audience takes on all of the pain that Quaid’s character inexplicably can’t feel, which makes for a genuinely enjoyable collective viewing experience. With a solid sense of humor to accompany all of this action and pain, the filmmakers craft a film that demands viewing in a big theater filled with an enthusiastic audience. While certainly heightened in the realism of the events that unfold, the film never goes so unrealistic as to entirely suspend disbelief and take one out of it.
Spearheading this crowd-pleaser of a film with charm and likability is Jack Quaid. The actor admittedly doesn’t do anything we haven’t seen before from him here, but he creates a character in Nathan Caine who is easy to root for and completely believable. Quaid brings an endearing innocence to the character, which feeds into Nathan’s motivation to go above and beyond to save a woman he hardly knows. In less capable hands, Novocaine could have easily gone off the rails and ventured into annoying or comfortable territory. Thankfully, that’s never the case as Quaid serves as a compelling lead.
Opposite Quaid is Ray Nicholson, the son of Jack Nicholson who most recently starred in Smile 2. Action movies tend to have throwaway bad guys and, in a way, Novocaine is no different. However, Nicholson plays the bank robbery leader with a brutality and psychoticism that make him genuinely unsettling.
The woman who stole Nathan’s heart and now finds herself hostage following a bank robbery is played by Amber Midthunder. The actress who earned universal praise for her role in the Predator movie Prey has terrific chemistry with Quaid at the beginning, which fosters emotional investment in Nathan’s desire to get Midthunder’s Sherry character back. For much of the movie, Sherry unfortunately falls into the damsel-in-distress category of characters, although the ending redeems this somewhat.
No cognitive demands are placed on the audience to follow Novocaine. That being said, there is a twist / reveal that arrives a little too early through the runtime and, if you think about it too much, the twist / reveal dampens the journey of the lead character. The final act manages to round things out well and explain everything, although, for a portion of the runtime, the purpose of Quaid’s character’s mission becomes unfortunately questionable.
VERDICT: 7.5/10
Novocaine takes the clever premise of an action comedy about a man who can’t feel pain to its limits. Featuring incredibly innovative action sequences (a hard feat considering the standard of action movies set by the likes of John Wick nowadays), the film bolsters an immersive, wincing quality as the audience vicariously experiences Jack Quaid’s lead character endure things that would elicit indescribable pain in the average person. The action is fused with a levity that, while rarely laugh-out-loud funny, contributes significantly to Novocaine’s status as a crowd-pleaser, the kind of film that demands viewing in a big theater with an enthusiastic audience. While Quaid does little we haven’t seen from the actor before, the increasingly popular movie-star crafts a likable and charming character to root for, which proves essential to buying into the premise and subverting the film from venturing into annoying or frustrating territory. Ray Nicholson follows his turn in Smile 2 with a menacing performance as the lead villain, while Prey’s Amber Midthunder is disappointingly underused despite having terrific chemistry with Quaid. A slightly mishandled twist / reveal dampens the film somewhat, although its calculated pacing and engaging blend of action and humor make it easy to overlook. Heading into Novocaine with quite low expectations, we are pleased to report that it is our surprise of 2025 so far.