When it comes to action cinema of the 2020s, we have three different options we find ourselves more often than not being subjected to by Hollywood. Those options are: action comedies like last year's 'The Fall Guy', stunt-driven films like the 'John Wick' series, or the relatively low-budget and usually straight-to-streaming endeavors like Milla Jovovich's latest 'In the Lost Lands'. Out of all these, I'm a lot more partial to the John Wick type action movies as readability is usually what I find myself valuing the most in action movies, and more often than not stunt stunt-driven films usually provide that in spades. I am usually a lot less interested in action comedies or straight-to-streaming films as they are typically a bit toothless and lacking in what I'm interested in. However, despite its nature..I found a lot to enjoy in rising star, Jack Quaid's latest.

Novocaine is about assistant bank manager, Nathan Caine, fighting to save the girl of his dreams from bank robbers after a heist goes wrong. The twist is: that Caine suffers from a disability that makes him unable to feel pain.

Dan Berk and Robert Olson's Novocaine is wonderfully violent and its action seems to value readability as much as I do. It also takes full advantage of its core conceit by having our protagonist played by Quaid, Nathan Caine, take as much damage as humanly possible during his fight scenes. There's a comedic scene at the end of the movie where Caine is told all the injuries he sustained throughout the movie by another character and it's admittedly as humourous as the filmmakers intended. Though it does make you question how the guy is still alive by the time the credits roll, as while he might not be able to feel pain, he still is human and can bleed out or get a blood-borne illness.

The heart of this movie very much is the relationship between Quaid's Caine and Amber Midthunder's Sherry. Their screentime together at the opening of the movie is economic but the chemistry between the two sells their connection, which is important when the whole movie centers around their relationship. You feel for them and want everything to end up going well for the pair as the movie progresses and the stakes rise. You can easily see a version of this movie that didn't work where this aspect of the film falls flat and we don't feel for Caine as he repeatedly finds himself in more and more dangerous situations that end up harming him more and more.

The action scenes of the movie keep this fun atmosphere going because despite how appropriately disgusting the movie gets with harming Caine, because of his condition, it never loses its fun factor. The action characterizes Caine as more of an underdog than any of Quaid's nervous nerdy dialogue does. We see him take on ex-military and career criminals and it never feels like a stretch that he's able to take them out because he can take all the pain they can give and keep going. 

The supporting cast for the movie rounds out the piece well, Jacob Batalon's Roscoe adds a fun presence to the film as Caine's comedic online friend with a little bit of an ego that he definitely cannot back up. Ray Nicholson's Simon plays a suitably evil villain in line with his family's legacy, though his acting chops don't line up with his father's. Don't get me wrong though, Nicholson is a good actor and he does a fine job as Simon and gives every cheesy bit of dialogue he's given to work with an appropriately tongue-in-cheek delivery..he's just no Jack Nicholson.

There's not much more really to say about Novocaine without diving too deep into spoilers so I'll just leave it off with: I recommend this movie. It's a fun popcorn action flick that I think you'll have a good time with, take your friends or family as well. I think it's a relatively crowd-pleasing film, not too weighty or long enough to make your loved ones sigh and glance at their watches.