A battering shot of comic violence

   First off, it's worth mentioning that I saw a preview of the new action comedy Novocaine in a theater equipped with 4DX. I'd never been exposed to this method of viewing before and to make things clear from the start, I was less than thrilled. 

   4DX aims to provide "extreme sensory cinema." You may feel air blowing against your face when cars speed across the screen or you may feel as if you’re being slammed against a wall during a fight. So called motion seats can shake, rattle, and roll you in synch with the action.

   If you want to know more about this technology, you can  visit a theater that uses it.  My view is simple: What's on the screen should offer sufficient sensory stimulation. How much extra boost do we need?

    I'm not sure what my reaction to Novocaine would have been had I seen it a theater that didn’t help turn the movie into a kind of amusement park ride. In fairness, I should say that Novocaine doesn't seem to aspire to much more than becoming another cinematic thrill ride. It begins softly, then comes on like a battering ram.

    The movie involves a gimmick suggested by its title. Nate (Jack Quaid), an assistant bank manager, suffers from Congenital Insensitivity to Pain with Anhidrosis (CIPA). He doesn't feel pain. A loner, Nate was bullied as a boy. His classmates made fun of his malady by dubbing him "Novocaine."

    The premise is simple. Nate decides to pursue a trio of brutal thugs (Evan Hengst, Conrad Kemp, and Ray Nicholson) who kidnap the only woman who ever gave Nate a second look, a bank teller named Sherry (Amber Midthunder). Scenes in which she coaxes him out of his shell are sweet.

    As an old ad once aid about a line of watches, Mate takes a licking but keeps on ticking. Because he feels no pain, he's able to stick his hand into a bubbling deep frier to retrieve a gun that's been tossed into it. He feels nothing when an arrow goes through his leg in house that's been booby trapped. Torture him and he has to fake his screams.

    Two cops (Betty Gabriel and Matt Walsh) also pursue the robbers; they view Nate as a suspect. They don't know he's just a lonely guy who fell for Sherry after she convinced him that it's OK to experience pleasure.

   That's pretty much it for casting, except for Jacob Batalon, who makes a late-picture entrance. Batalon plays a video game enthusiast and online pal of Nate who reluctantly comes to Nate's rescue.

    Quaid, the son of Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid, does a good job playing a guy who's entirely out-of-place in the violent, kick-ass world Nate encounters. Nicholson, son of Jack Nicholson and Rebecca Broussard, leads the pack of villains with sadistic verve.

   Fair to say, too, that directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen demonstrate a feel for comic violence. But as the movie unfolds, the set pieces can seem more repetitious than innovative. Moreover, laughs can curdle as the violent "jokes" become increasingly graphic.

    Oh well, I'll sum it up this way: I'm not a fan of amusement park rides -- off screen or on.