Ever since Taken, I have joked about the sub genre that seems to be “man with a particular set of skills”. Liam Neeson has basically lived in this genre, though plenty of other actors, form Aaron Eckhart to Jason Statham are making movies as seemingly normal people with a dark past that comes out. the sub genre got a twist with John Wick, and then we started building universes, and clandestine organizations for these men to supposedly work for, or have retired from. Novocaine boldly looks this genre in the face, and says No. Yet, i can’t help feel it owes a lot to this trend.

jack Quaid stars as a mild mannered bank employee who lives his life one second at a time. Very carefully. He cannot feel pain. Instead of this instantly feeling like something cool, he explains how dangerous it can be, and what his childhood was like. So, he could cut himself, and technically bleed out without ever knowing unless he noticed the blood.He starts to come a bit more out of his shell when he meets a charming young woman (Amber Midthunder) who opens him up to things like… eating pie for the first time because he’s afraid to eat solid foods and biting his tongue. We see that he goes home and basically plays online games with one friend. He doesn’t go out or make bold choices.

But, when a bank robbery goes wrong, and the head bank robber (Ray Nicholson) takes the only girl he’s ever cared about as a hostage, he’ll use his set of zero skills to try and get her back… at any cost. Because he’s basically a bubble boy that could die, but will now put himself directly into harms way, many times, for love.

It gets a little ridiculous, because he’s so clearly the opposite direction. he doesn’t even eat solid food. This guy is afraid of solid food, but getting into dangerous scenarios is now just like flipping a switch? They work so hard at selling him one way, he almost feels like he’s accidentally defeating all his enemies in some strange film that Leslie Nielsen turned down. Yet, it isn’t a complete parody, it is just supposed to be fun.

The cast is a charming trio of up and comers, which helps. Two of them have famous parents, with Jack Quaid trying to make his own presence known as a Quaid, and ray Nicholson looking a lot like his father Jack. It certainly does have charisma and charm, but it has a level of implausibility already built in, which it worked extra hard to sell you on before course correcting. At one point, he has this mace thing in his back, which should have done some real damage, but it is played like a minor inconvenience.

the audio description managed to support the action in the film, and the tone of the comedy. while Novocaine certainly isn’t the best film in and around this genre, it is a nice enough twist and distraction to be worth your watch.

Fresh: Final Grade: 7.6/10 Audio description: B+