Sadly, Love Hurts is Ke Huy Quan’s first film as a leading man after winning an Academy Award for Everything Everywhere All at Once. Quan’s acting career was sparse for nearly 40 years, but trained in martial arts his entire life and worked with Corey Yuen (martial arts choreographer for The Man with the Iron Fists, director of The Transporter) as a fight coordinator on X-Men and a stunt choreographer on Jet Li’s The One.
Quan is the highlight of Love Hurts. He’s likable and conflicted as Marvin Gable. Quan has this relatable charisma to his performances and that’s no different here. He’s wise and compassionate in the film while willing to tutor whoever is willing to listen. His action sequences are impressive with the speed and innovation of a Jackie Chan fight and a kind of brutality you’d find in a modernized Shaw Brothers film.
Other decent aspects of the film are Marvin’s brother Alvin (Daniel Wu), better known as Knuckles, drinking boba tea whenever he’s on screen. You half expect him to bleed boba by the end of the film. There’s also a knife-wielding hitman (think Danny Trejo’s Navajas in Desperado) called Raven (Mustafa Shakir). Raven has the best fights in the film, but he writes poems whenever he isn’t killing.
While the action is mostly solid in Love Hurts, the first actual fight in the film is rough. Involving bumbling hitmen Otis (Andre Eriksen) and King (Marshawn Lynch), who bicker like an old married couple and argue over Otis’ wife wanting to leave him like a weird bromance you’d find in a goofy stoner comedy like Pineapple Express, you can noticeably see Ke Huy Quan’s stunt double in this fight while a noticeable dummy is used moments later. It doesn’t seem like one of those on-purpose moments for laughs either, but rather a poor editing job or was rushed due to time constraints. But at least the POV shots inside the microwave and fridge during this fight are fun.
The action comedy feels like someone cut out the middle portion of the Kill Bill films and presented it as one film. Love Hurts is about a guy who used to kill people for his brother, but eventually got out. He fell in love with the last target he was supposed to kill, staged her death, and got them both out. Then he started a new life as a realtor.
The film makes it a point to portray the fact that you can’t outrun your past, but that line alone makes Love Hurts feel so predictable. Rose (Ariana DeBose), is the woman Marvin fell in love with who has returned for revenge. But she forces Marvin back into life for selfish reasons and it seems like she doesn’t love him at all. She only uses him for his ability to kill. She treats him like dirt the entire film and ruins his life all because she doesn’t want to run and hide anymore—hardly the actions of someone who reciprocates admiration for another individual.
An accountant named Kippy (Rhys Darby) is captured by Rose to locate $4 million which was part of the cause of why Rose went into hiding. While Kippy is tied up, two of his teeth are ripped out when the duct tape over his mouth is removed. But the mouthpiece looks like it was the cheapest one they could find because it looks like the jagged and oversized hillbilly teeth you normally find in a plastic baggy at a Halloween costume store.
Love Hurts is watchable because of Ke Huy Quan and the film features some decent action. However, the humor is juvenile and total cringe and the story is total butts. The characters in this film don’t have arcs. They have U-turns and straight lines. This is unfunny mediocrity with fast-punching turbulence and that hurts almost as much as the title of this film.
