Rated R

Jack Quaid stars as an assistant manager at a bank who has a crush on one of the tellers. When they finally go out, he confides in her that he has a medical condition in which he does not feel pain.

When a group of bank robbers, led by Ray Nicholson, takes the teller hostage, he embarks on a mission to save her while taking full advantage of his kinda-sorta super power.

This film has some entertaining and often hilarious action set pieces, bringing a frenetic energy to keep things going. And that’s good because there’s enough silly logic and factual nonsense in the script to make Bugs Bunny blush.

Quaid makes things work because he has taken a different image path than daddy Dennis, playing the nerdy guy in extraordinary situations. Though Nicholson channels his papa Jack too much and comes across as a bad SNL caricature.

Still, NOVOCAINE is a good time as long as you check your brain at the door.

NOVOCAINE gets three and a half epinephrine injections out of five. I’m Kevin Carr, and that’s the way I see it.

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