Building a strong narrative clearly took a backseat to inventing fun ways to take advantage of the hero’s rare medical condition.

When the revolutionary leader/psychic baby mutant Kuato said "Quaid, start the reactor" in Paul Verhoeven's 1990 sci-fi classic "Total Recall," I know for a fact that he wasn't referring to actor Jack Quaid,

Quaid's leading role in Novocaine feels like a natural continuation of these genre-bent everymen. He plays Nathan Caine, a mild-mannered assistant bank manager who has congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA), a genetic disorder that impacts his nervous system to the point that he can't feel pain or temperature.