That’s not to say that directors, Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, are the only ones out here trying to thrust movie watchers back into the action movies of yore. Michael Bay and Doug Liman have been trying the same with films like AmbuLAnce and Road House. So with a surprising twist on the action comedy toned with splatstick comes Novocaine, a blood-soaked action comedy that breaks through the chains of midnighters.

Jack Quaid and his overflowing charm lead as Nathan Caine, the mild-mannered bank assistant manager living his life within the confines created by his condition. Caine can’t feel pain, so to avoid any life-threatening accidents, he lives life in a box made of smoothies (he could bite his tongue if he chews!), watered down coffee, and tennis balls acting as metaphorical and literal guardrails. Caine’s life finally gets tastier when he meets Sherry (Amber Midthunder), a colleague with a forkful of cherry pie and a whole other experience with self-inflicted pain. When their bank is robbed and Sherry is taken hostage, Caine uses his condition as his superpower and takes every kick, punch, bullet, and burn with ease and valour so he can rescue his dame.

The simple set up sends the every-man into the underworld fray, but Novocaine is more than just an average Joe taking on unreal baddies. It takes that premise and mixes in some gnarly gore (with this and The Monkey, those of us who laugh at good gore are having a great year), and a host of tropes that feel ripped from 80s action films. Its early reveal is massively forecast but simultaneously difficult to see until you clue into the sort of film you’re watching. Its gory midsection is sometimes tiresome but does its best to stay fresh, then the third act barrels into throwback action that’ll leave a queasy audience ready to cheer.

Novocaine almost never asks you to take it seriously which is to its own detriment. Dancing a little bit too close to parody, it stuffs the film with a comedy version of a cliched cop partnered with a serious version of one who still seems completely inept at police work. Pit them against the world’s dumbest and most brash bank robbers (seriously, they could learn restraint from the robbers in Point Break), and I guess you can see why the skinny bank manager would take this battle on his own.  It makes the lore of the cops and robbers difficult to buy into and sucks some of the comedy out of Caine’s splatter parade by being a bit too dumb. It’s perhaps worth it to see Ray Nicholson go full Bodhi but he is not given room to be Sonny Wortzick.

While it’s tempting to compare Novocaine to the other average Joe movies that succeeded John Wick, it’s much more on a plane with Baby Driver and Boy Kills World where a guy with a particularly special skill takes on larger than life villains with a specific motivation, the whole affair being brightly lit with saturated colours (that really make that red blood pop). Novocaine isn’t the next in line of average Joe shot-em-ups, it’s a reminder of a time where the best movies had action stars dangling off the sides of a city bus.

Novocaine hits theaters March 14, 2025.