NO PAIN NO GAIN

Our reluctant hero can't feel his injuries in grisly slapstick comedy that plays torture for uncomfortable laughs

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THIS hare-brained comedy from Dan Berk and Robert Olsen introduces an unlikely action hero: a mild-mannered bank executive with an incredibly rare condition - congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA).

This real-life syndrome is extremely dangerous because patients can be unaware if they suffer grievous physical injury or if their body is fight-ing off an infection that requires urgent antibiotic reinforcement.

Novocaine screenwriter Lars Jacobson concocts a simple premise that transforms an introverted everyman with CIPA into a 21st-century superhero, who is likely to die in the line of duty because he doesn't know when to stop.