Love Hurts

Despite the undeniable talent of Ke Huy Quan and Ariana DeBose, LOVE HURTS is a painfully generic action-comedy that does little to justify its rather short presence. While both actors bring their usual charisma and commitment, both are left stranded in a film that lacks creativity, effective humor, and even a basic sense of narrative cohesion. The occasional well-executed fight sequence provides fleeting moments of excitement, but they aren't nearly enough to compensate for the bland storytelling and underdeveloped characters. For a movie that leans so heavily on the concept of blending action with comedy, it fails to deliver enough of either to make the experience remotely engaging. What's most frustrating is how LOVE HURTS squanders its potential at every turn. The script feels like a first draft that never went through the necessary rewrites, riddled with incoherent plot points and lazy storytelling choices. There just isn't enough here to latch onto. The action isn't frequent or inventive enough to impress, and the comedy lands with a dull thud more often than not. By the time the credits roll, the only real takeaway is how much better both Quan and DeBose deserve. Rating: D+

This movie starts off like a comedy, which is fine if that’s what it’s aiming for, but when you go in expecting action and get slapstick humor instead, it feels off. The tone is all over the place. The story follows Marvin Gable (Ke Huy Quan), a former hitman turned real estate agent, but it doesn’t do much with that concept. It throws him into a situation where his past comes back to haunt him, yet there’s no proper setup, no real stakes, and no explanation for why things happen the way they do. The transitions are rushed, and the pacing feels like the script was pieced together without a clear vision. There’s barely a plot, just a series of chaotic events with little to no build-up. The directing is a mess. Scenes escalate with no logic, and major moments happen so fast they don’t have any weight. Cinematography is just as frustrating, especially with the camera constantly circling Marvin whenever he’s deep in thought, which happens way too often. At one point, the movie spends nearly half of the second act on him repeating that he needs to “face his past.” It’s exhausting. The fight scenes aren’t much better. One guy throws knives at the ground, what was he aiming at exactly? others conveniently forget they have guns, or they point straight and shoot as if they're part of a first person shooter game. The action is so choreographed and predictable that it loses any tension. The acting doesn’t help either. Ke Huy Quan does his best, but the role just doesn’t fit him. The supporting cast feels like they’re forcing their performances, especially in the few moments where the movie tries to develop its characters. It’s like they added emotional depth as an afterthought instead of making it feel natural. Then there’s the script, which is a whole other issue. The dialogue is repetitive, with Marvin narrating every single thing he’s about to do instead of just doing it. It makes the movie feel dumbed down, as if the audience needs to be spoon-fed every thought and decision. Even the music choices are questionable. The score doesn’t match the tone of the scenes, making everything feel even more disconnected. It’s as if someone randomly picked tracks without considering how they fit into the story. By the time the big climax rolls around, the movie has already lost all sense of direction. When Marvin finally fights his past (literally and figuratively), it plays out in the most ridiculous way possible, with one-on-one fights that ignore any logical strategy. In the end, Love Hurts is a frustrating watch, disjointed, poorly executed, and lacking any real impact.

“Marv” (Ke Huy Quan) is a cheery real estate agent who’s just won an award for his sterling efforts when he receives an unwelcome visitor at his office. “The Raven” (Mustafa Shakir) is a poet, he loves his verse - but he’s also an useful man with his knives too, and after a few minutes we begin to suspect that this meek little estate agent has really got all the ninja skills of “John Wick”. It transpires that he used to be an enforcer for his sibling “Knuckles” (Daniel Wu) who has been mixed up with some Russians and is now worried that “Rose” (Ariana DeBose) has managed to wheedle some information from his missing accountant “Kippy” (Rhys Darby). Now she is supposed to have been killed already, but big brother is sceptical and because “Rose” and “Marv” have some past, it’s going to be down to him to find her before she finds him! The first ten minutes of this are quite good fun as it pokes some fun at the faux-sincerity of the “Glengarrry Glen Ross” brigade but thereafter it all just descends into a rather farcical affair with it’s lightly-comedic and repetitive fight scenes destroying some perfectly good fitted kitchens. Sean Astin features briefly, but to no real purpose as the cat and mouse game vacillates between the two teams and some family menace ensues. DeBose tries hard, for that matter so does Quan, but the story is the stuff of a very weak Jackie Chan affair that rumbles along predictably and without much charm. It’s short, which is a good thing, and it’s not un-watchable, but it’s not good either.