Characters who are impervious to pain, or have an exceptionally high pain threshold, have become increasingly ubiquitous in a cinematic landscape dominated by superheroes and comic-book characters like Deadpool and Wolverine.
Similarly, with infrastructure now firmly in place in the film industry to transform the gangliest of thespians into a shredded war machine, a new subgenre built around everyday action heroes has found lasting commercial success.
Novocaine, from directing duo Dan Berk and Robert Olsen, draws from both phenomena, presenting…