Novocaine

Jack Quaid feels no pain in this goofy action/comedy about a dweeb who takes on some baddies to save his girl, aka the revenge of the beta male.

In the movies, physical presence is usually determinative of an actor’s career. If, say, you look like Dennis Quaid, you are going to get cast in heroic roles, romantic leads, maybe as a mouthy headcase or a third-act villain. Jocks, cops, presidents — Quaid has done them all.

If, however, you look like Dennis Quaid’s son, Jack — gangly, doe-eyed, cute but trending more toward his mom, Meg Ryan — Hollywood is not going to put you in alpha male roles. You’re going to be the comedic relief or the snarky sidekick, aka more or less what he’s known for in his biggest credit to date, “The Boys” series on Amazon Prime Video.

Luckily for Quaid the junior, someone found a way for him to do both at once.

In “Novocaine,” he is the action star, but in a goofy, beta-male kinda way. He plays Nathan Caine, a 30-year-old dweeb working as an assistant manager at a San Diego bank. He’s introverted and reclusive, mostly playing video games in his off-hours with his single friend, Roscoe, who he’s never actually met in person.

He casts moony glances at the new bank teller, Sherry (Amber Midthunder), but Nate lives in the real world, where women like her end up with guys who look like Dennis Quaid.

Nate’s defining trait is that he has CIPA, a congenital disorder that means he cannot feel pain, or be bothered by heat and cold. (Sounds like Hollywood BS, perhaps dreamed up by screenwriter Lars Jacobson, but no it’s a real thing.) He got the titular nickname in middle school, when other kids learned they could wail on him without seeming to really bother him.

Sherry finally makes the first move and they share an incredible first night together — she admiringly dubs his defect a superpower. Plus, she’s got trauma and darkness in her past, too. Of course, as someone whose life has been about avoidance, Nate is thrilled down to his toes.

But the very next day Sherry gets kidnapped by a group of bank robbers dressed as Santas, really nasty chucklers who kill the bank manager. (Promotion opportunity for Nate?!?) They take out the cops responding to the incident, too, so Nate takes off after them to rescue the girl who represents his best shot at a happy life.

The next 90 minutes or so is a nonstop chase in which Nate gets bloodied, beaten, burned and perforated with increasing severity — all of which he’s totally indifferent to. He has basically no combat skills whatsoever, but because he can take pretty much anything the bad guys dish out, he just keeps coming.

He’s like the Terminator, except he’s constantly groveling and apologizing in the midst of combat, but of course in an ironic Millennial, gosh-are-we-really-doing-this way.

In truth, it’s a one-gimmick movie and I expected this would get old pretty fast. Strangely enough, it does not.

Part of it is Quaid’s natural charm. He may look like a tall drink of water, but he has a screen presence that just makes people hold empathy for his character. Nate doesn’t have a lot going for him in life, burdened with a weirdo condition on top of it all. But he’s a good dude, and we want good things to happen for him.

Directing duo Dan Berk and Robert Olsen (“Villains”) pull off the hat trick of staging action scenes that are at once gruesome, funny and authentic. Nate is generally flailing and falling about, but somehow manages to put together enough moves to overcome his opponents. He does learn a bit as things go on, especially how to use his lack of pain to his advantage.

Of course, comedy is the name of this game and there are plenty of good laughs to be found. My favorite was one where Nate is captured and tortured, and to keep up appearances he has to scream and moan like he’s in horrible agony. Having never experienced this, his play-acting is hilariously terrible.

Ray Nicholson is the primary villain as head robber Simon, who seems to think it’s genuinely fun to shoot cops and hurt innocent people. Betty Gabriel plays the detective assigned to the case, trying to decide if Nate is an inept do-gooder or an inside man. Jacob Batalon turns up late in the game as Roscoe, a Harley-riding stud just this side of Jack Reacher, supposedly.

Yes, you could poke a thousand holes in the plot. Like the fact that even if a guy doesn’t feel anything when he’s shot with a crossbow through the leg, it will still buckle due to damage to muscles, tendons and bones. There’s also that thing that seemingly every other action movie has where someone gets stabbed through the hand without suffering permanent debilitation. Give that a try and let me know how it works out for you.

We don’t mind because we understand the stakes are low, and this is all for fun. I had a lot more of it with “Novocaine” than I expected.