A classic case of a decent idea marred by poor execution, Novocaine is one of those films you want to like but ultimately can’t. The film stars Jack Quaid, one of the most enjoyable of the nepo-babies that have taken over Hollywood in the 2020s. Here he plays Nate, a young(ish) assistant bank manager who can’t feel physical pain due to a genetic disorder and must harness this condition to rescue his girlfriend when she is kidnapped by bank robbers.

Initially, the film feels like it might be a sweet and incisive exploration of how pain is an inextricable part of our lives, but it soon descends into a bone-crunching melee that grows increasingly gruesome and tedious as time goes on. The film also can never figure out its tone. It is both cartoonish yet depressingly violent, which is never a good combo.

Quaid, thankfully, is an unflappable lead. If you’ve seen The Boys, then you won’t be surprised by anything he does here. But that doesn’t really take away from his charisma and likeability. He makes the most out of a script that has basically one theme it, well, repeatedly beats you over the head with.

He’s joined by Prey’s Amber Midthunder, who plays his abducted girlfriend Sherry, and Quaid’s fellow nepo-baby Ray Nicholson, who plays Simon, one of the bank robbers. Both of their characters are deeply underwritten. Nicholson’s Simon though is particularly bad, a completely one-note psychopath who is only bearable because the actor adeptly channels his father’s legendary on-screen insanity.

Ultra-violent yet strangely uninvolving, Novocaine fumbles its promising start. It wants to electrify you. But by the time the film wraps up, you’ll more likely just feel grossed out or, like its namesake, completely anesthetized.