Review: 'Novocaine' is a decent, if bloody, action comedy that sneaks in some heart and soul

The action movie “Novocaine” centers on one man becoming a human piñata, and to whatever extent that premise works, it’s because of the charm of the young star doing it, Jack Quaid.

Quade plays Nate Caine, an assistant manager at a San Diego bank branch. He’s one of the good ones, though, as we see early when he quietly bends the rules to give a widowed hardware store owner (Lou Beatty Jr.) until after Christmas to pay his mortgage. Nate is also sweet on one of the bank’s tellers, Sherry (Amber Midthunder) — and when he finally gets up the nerve to ask her out for coffee, he’s surprised that she says yes.

On their first date, Nate tells Sherry a secret: He has a condition, called CIPA — for Congenital Insensitivity to Pain and Anhydrosis — in which the person afflicted cannot feel pain. This condition, Nate tells Sherry, is quite dangerous, and has required him to be exceedingly careful in his life. For example, he consumes only protein shakes and blenderized foods, because if he chews solid food, he runs the risk of severely biting his tongue. Their real date ends at his place, quite romantically.

The next day at the bank, Nate’s reverie is shattered by three robbers in Santa outfits, carrying machine guns. The robbers kill the bank manager, and threaten to kill Sherry unless Nate gives them the combination to the vault. They make off with the cash, and take Sherry along as a hostage as they shoot several cops who have arrived outside the bank.

Nate, determined to save Sherry from the crooks, steals a police car (taking a moment to put a tourniquet on the injured cop) and gives chase. This is how directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, whose last movie was the forest survival thriller “Significant Other,” set in motion a series of set pieces that take advantage of Nate’s no-pain condition to create cringe-inducing physical violence. In an early scene, Nate fights with one robber in a restaurant, and one of the gags involves Nate retrieving a gun from a deep fryer.

It’s gross, and gets downright gory as it goes. But soon a viewer becomes oddly fascinated with the way the directors and screenwriter Lars Jacobsen commit so completely to the gag. It may be a one-joke story, but that joke is played and replayed hilariously and rather fearlessly.

If you don’t know Jack Quaid’s work yet on “The Boys” or “Star Trek: Lower Decks,” his name may lead you to suspect he’s a nepo baby, and you’d be right, twice over. Quaid is the son of stars Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, and it’s apparent that charisma is an inherited trait. He’s a pleasure to watch, and brings a lightness to a role that could get weirdly heavy.

Some of the movie’s success also goes to Midthunder (“Prey”), who delivers a lot more than a typical damsel in distress, and to Jacob Batalon (from the Tom Holland “Spider-Man” trilogy) in a role that it’s best not to know much about in advance.

The premise of “Novocaine” can’t quite sustain the movie’s full length, but it gets points for being more real about CIPA than it needs to be — and for surreptitiously splicing a nice romantic comedy into what could have been just another blood-fueled action comedy.

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‘Novocaine’

★★★

Opens Friday, March 14, at theaters everywhere. Rated R for strong bloody violence, grisly images, and language throughout. Running time: 110 minutes.