Synopsis: No matter how hard you try, you can’t break up with your past. This Valentine’s Day, Oscar® winner Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Loki) rockets into his first major leading man role as an unlikely hero, a seemingly mild-mannered realtor with a dark secret that he is desperate to leave behind. Spoiler alert: He won’t.
What We Thought:
Love Hurts isn’t quite the film I was hoping for, but I still had fun with it. I know it’s only February, but I expected it to be a flick I talk about the entire year. It’s good, but I wanted great.
I wanted “great” for two reasons. First, it’s from 87North, the production team behind Nobody, Violent Night and a little action franchise called John Wick. Second, it stars Ke Huy Quan. He first came to fame in the 1980s as Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Data in The Goonies before his big comeback in Everything Everywhere All at Once in 2022. What a lot of people don’t realize is, he did a bunch of stunt choreography and assistant director work in between his child star era and Oscar winning return. This film with the help of 87North was going to be a showcase of his talents. It is, but again I wanted a bit more.
Quan plays a real estate agent whose past comes back to him on Valentine’s Day. When a woman from that past pops up again, his brother wants to know what’s going on. Quan’s new normal life is thrown for a loop and his old abilities he believed were put away for good, must come back to life to survive his brother and those out to kill him.
Did Keanu Reeves’ John Wick think his killer past was behind him? Yes. Did Bob Odenkirk’s character in Nobody think his killer past was behind him? Also yes. Did David Harbour’s Santa Claus in Violent Night think his killer past was behind him? Again, yes. So basically this is the same plot if you think about it. Those movies have a lot more violence and action which is what I wanted/expected from this movie.
That’s the biggest issue with the film, not enough action. The action in it is great and Quan is very much the leading man he should be, but I wanted more. Nobody has a great action set piece on a bus. Bullet Train is one entire action set piece. Violent Night you think of the attic scene with the young girl and Santa Claus kicking butt in the building. Love Hurts doesn’t have that one distinct action set piece it needs. Quan fights in his office, his house and his brother’s club, but there’s no one action set piece that stands out.
I will say the biggest positive is its runtime. The film clocks in under 90 minutes so it jumps right into the story. In a matter of minutes you know about Quan’s character and he soon finds himself doing battle in his office. The film doesn’t wander too far because of its shortness. Despite its short runtime there are things that could still be trimmed though. His friendship with Sean Astin’s character in the film is a nice Goonies homage, but ultimately could be eliminated without losing much. There’s a side love story with Lio Tipton and Mustafa Shakir that gets a ton of laughs, but again, could have hit the editing floor without losing much to the story.
Love Hurts is a good mix of action and comedy, but it could have used more action. It did make me wonder if Ke Huy Quan could have been in action comedies like Jackie Chan did in the 1990s and 2000s with how much comedy was actually in it. That I wasn’t expecting. Some people didn’t like the narration, I personally didn’t mind it. It has a solid supporting cast with Ariana DeBose, Daniel Wu, former NFL star Marshawn Lynch (who I hope to see more of) and others. It has a solid soundtrack as well. I wish it was a bit better, but I overall it still gets a…
RECOMMENDED!
Cast: Ke Huy Quan, Ariana DeBose, Daniel Wu, Sean Astin, Mustafa Shakir, Lio Tipton, Rhys Darby, Marshawn Lynch, André Eriksen
Directed by JoJo Eusebio
Written by Matthew Murray & Josh Stoddard and Luke Passmore
Producers: Kelly McCormick, David Leitch, Guy Danella
The Nerds Templar 