Novocaine is a movie with all the ingredients, with one or two being a little overused.

Nate (Jack Quaid) is your normal, everyday assistant manager at a bank, except he can’t feel pain. Just a day after he finally goes on a date with his crush (Amber Midthunder), she gets kidnapped, and he must get her back. This works as a revenge film like Upgrade, discovering your powers from within like Kick-Ass, and mixes in the mundane nature of day to day life like Office Space. 

There’s many sequences throughout that will have you squirming in your seat from the violence. Ten seconds on either side of the blood, you’ll be laughing your butt off from the sheer absurdity of some of these situations the characters find themselves in. The action is at least half impressive and shows off the creativeness they brought out from Nate’s special power, or lack thereof. There is some very clever writing and it leads to one of the best kills of the decade.

A lot of side characters get just a little too much screen time and it takes away from the main story that I couldn’t help but be invested in. Some of those characters add b-side stories that become unnecessary and ultimately unresolved. I think if they stuck with a more straightforward storyline, I could have been even more into it overall. Quaid and Midthunder are a perfect match on screen, that I wish we got a lot more of. It’s still a fun time, but doesn’t need to be seen in a theater to be enjoyed.

7/10