Love Hurts review

LOVE HURTS: 

THIS MOVIE HURTS MORE! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: ** out of 4

UNIVERSAL PICTURES

Ke Huy Quan in Love Hurts

 

            The incredibly charismatic Key Huy Quan (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Goonies, Everything Everywhere All at Once) goes from Oscar winner to Short Round equivalent of John Wick in Love Hurts, the new action-comedy produced by David Leitch (Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, The Fall Guy) with Jonathan Eusebio in his directorial debut. I was actually looking forward to this movie after I saw the trailer and thought it looked like a fun action movie with over-the-top violence and tongue in cheek humor (Which there are elements of here), plus Ke Huy Quan has been such an onscreen delight lately after 2022’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. 

            It seemed like it was going to be in the same vein as Nobody with Bob Odenkirk or the upcoming Jack Quaid movie, Novocaine…unfortunately, that is not the case with this film. Despite some fun moments and Ke Huy Quan’s lovable charm, this is a muddled and pretty lackluster clone of other, better action movies that’s neither funny nor exciting enough. 

            The film follows successful realtor, Marvin Gable (Quan) living a happy life and has just been awarded the highest honor by his boss. But when he receives a mysterious red envelope from a woman known as Rose (Ariana DeBose-West Side Story (2021), Wish, Argylle), Marvin’s past life as a hitman comes back to haunt him with his crime lord brother, Knuckles (Daniel Wu-Warcraft, Tomb Raider (2018), Reminiscence) out to hunt him down thrusting him back into life of deadly hitmen and open houses becoming bloody warzones. 

            The film also stars Marshawn Lynch (Bottoms) as King, Mustafa Shakir (Luke Cage, Cowboy Bebop (2021), Ghosted) as Raven, Lio Tipton (Crazy Stupid Love, Warm Bodies, Vengeance) as Ashley, Rhys Darby (What We Do in the Shadows, Jumanji 2 and 3, Our Flag Means Death) as Kippy Betts, André Eriksen (DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, The Trip, Violent Night) as Otis, Sean Astin (Rudy, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, 50 First Dates) as Cliff Cussick, Cam Gigandet (Twilight, Easy A, The Magnificent Seven (2016)) as Renny Merlow, and Drew Scott (Madison, Brother VS Brother, Saturday Night Live) as Jeff Zaks. 

            Overall, Love Hurts is sadly not the Go-To Valentine’s Day action movie for 2025 despite Ke Huy Quan’s likability and some fun action scenes. The movie is clearly riding on the coattails of John Wick and other action films without really understanding why movies like John Wick worked. 

            The action scenes are well choreographed and can be fun to watch with sort of that kinetic energy the John Wickfilms, Nobody, and Bullet Train had where it’s almost a non-stop adrenaline rush of bloodshed and people getting killed in crazy, over-the-top ways. I shit you not, a character gets killed by being stabbed in the eye by a Boba straw and it is one of the most ridiculous deaths I’ve seen in a while, alas good action scenes don’t automatically make a good movie. 

            The plot ranges from being paper thin to a colossal mess with no real tension or investment in the characters. John Wick is very action-heavy and over-the-top, but the main character was still defined and you understood his reasoning for going out on a manhunt against criminals because it had a far more engaging story that was made with care and attention to detail whereas this just feels like another version of that and failing. 

            Ke Huy Quan and Ariana DeBose are fine actors and try their best to get something out of the film, but I didn’t buy their chemistry at all here. Quan just wants to leave his old life behind and enjoy his success as a real estate agent while DeBose tricks him back in by wanting his skills as a former hitman to get what she wants ultimately resulting in them falling back in love by the end. 

Sometimes things like that can work with characters like Batman and Catwoman, but you need to flesh the characters out and give them legitimate chemistry in order to make it believable. Until then, Wade Wilson and Vanessa from the first Deadpool remain the definitive Valentine’s Day action movie power couple. 

I don’t know guys; Love Hurts is a stupid Valentine’s Day-themed action movie that exists that may not be one of the worst films of the genre. But coming off of other movies of the genre that do this sort of thing better, it’s a pretty miserable imitation of what could have been an enjoyable detour from typical Valentine’s Day fare. 

Love may hurt, but an anticipated movie you were looking forward to turning out to be a big disappointment hurts even more. Hopefully, the new slasher film, Heart Eyes will be the superior Valentine’s Day 2025 entertainment.