• Director: Dan Berk, Robert Olsen
• Screenplay: Lars Jacobson
• Cast: Jack Quaid, Amber Midthunder, Ray Nicholson, Betty Gabriel, Matt Walsh, Jacob Batalon
• Cinematography: Jacques Jouffret
• Editing: Christian Wagner
• Score: Lorne Balfe, Andrew Kawczynski
• Genre: Action comedy
• Runtime: 110 minutes

Nathan Caine (Quaid) can’t feel pain. That’s his deal. His special power. He suffers from CIP – a congenital insensitivity to pain. It makes him a superhero of sorts, his identity complete with a name, his middle school moniker: Novocaine, like the anaesthetic drug.

All superheroes have an ordinary life as a cover story. Nathan’s is that he works as an assistant manager at a bank. He’s smitten by his co-worker, Sherry (Midthunder) but when she gets taken hostage by robbers, Nathan takes it upon himself to rescue Sherry, with messy results. Break a leg, Novocaine! (Not that he’d even register if that happened). Nathan needs to remember this condition doesn’t make him immortal so he can’t afford to have too cavalier an attitude. No pain, no gain? Well, not quite in this case.

It’s a delightfully diverting action romp which fully delivers on the madcap premise at every given opportunity. I think I laughed as much as I winced – more than a dozen times. You’d expect to become desensitised to seeing an implement plunging into Nathan’s body after the umpteenth time yet I still recoiled with horror.

There’s plenty of set up at the start to develop the characters enough for you to root for them and great comedic performances from man of the moment Jack Quaid, Midthunder and Ray Nicholson (the spitting image of his father Jack) as the lead goon. As you’d imagine, there’s gobs of gore as Nathan is battered, bruised, burnt and beaten. He’s in hot water – literally at one point, scalding his hand. Ouch!

My rating: 8 / 10