Directed by: Robert Olsen and Dan Berk
Starring: Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Jacob Batalon, Ray Nicholson, Evan Hengst, Matt Walsh, Betty Gabriel
Nathan Caine (Quaid) is an unassuming San Diego bank assistant manager who awakes daily to a routine of smoothies and coffee. He has a ho-hum job with the occasional threat of foreclosure to customers who can't pay their mortgages, but Nathan even tries to help them out. He has a crush on Sherry (Midthunder), a teller who has been with the bank only four months and would love nothing more than to date her. Nathan, however, hides a disorder...he can't feel pain. He accidentally spills scalding coffee on his hand and feels nothing although he suffers second degree burns. He confesses he has to set an alarm to ensure he uses the restroom or else his bladder may explode. This doesn't mean he is immortal. A gunshot could cause him to bleed out and die, but he wouldn't need morphine to cope with it.
Then, on Christmas Eve, the bank is robbed by a trio of sadistic thieves who kill the bank manager and take Sherry hostage. Nathan decides to go after them instead of waiting for the police to find her. He chases down one robber and, following a series of events, dips his hand in boiling cooking oil to retrieve a gun and shoot the guy dead. His hand is fried to a crisp, but that's the cost of this vigilante business. Nathan recruits his online gaming buddy Roscoe (Batalon) to assist him in his quest, while we learn Sherry may not be all she seems.
Quaid is an affable hero but is not a superhero, just a guy in love. With the exception of the protagonist's inability to feel physical pain, though, Novocaine is a standard action movie with overly choreographed fight scenes and endless car chases. Nathan navigates a home filled with booby traps we suspect were placed there just so we can witness arrows or knives stabbing him over and over. The movie repeats the same tiresome gag throughout. We realize that Novocaine is a by-the-numbers action film tied together by a gimmick.
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