Love Hurts cements Ke Huy Quan’s leading man status in a hilarious action-comedy tailor-made for the Oscar winner’s affable charm. He reluctantly beats wisecracking, poetry-spouting, and knife-throwing baddies to bloody pulps while saving the problematic girl of his dreams on Valentine’s Day, all while being Milwaukee’s top residential real estate agent. A fun supporting ensemble fuels the fist and laugh barrage when the plot runs thin. Sparks don’t exactly fly between Quan and co-star Ariana DeBose, but their lack of romantic chemistry is offset by other surprising developments.
Marvin Gable (Quan) cheerily bakes a batch of heart-shaped cookies. He straps on his bike helmet before cycling to a nearby suburb to show his latest house. Marvin isn’t happy that someone’s defacing his many advertisements on benches and buses around the city. He’s convinced the culprit is his top competitor (Drew Scott), who’s also showing a house nearby.
An Action and Humor Bonanza
Love Hurts
3.5
/5
- Release Date
-
February 7, 2025
- Director
-
JoJo Eusebio
- Writers
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Matthew Murray, Josh Stoddard, Luke Passmore
- Ke Huy Quan is fantastic as a leading man.
- Romantic subplots between the supporting cast carries the humor.
- Dynamite action scenes keep the thrills coming.
- Quan and Ariana DeBose don’t have romantic chemistry.
- The overall plot has multiple logic gaps.
Marvin puts on a charm offensive to the potential buyers before heading into his office at Frontier Realty. Ashley (Lio Tipton), his perennially depressed assistant, hands him his mail as everyone celebrates the romantic holiday. Marvin is stunned to receive a mysterious card from Rose. What is she thinking contacting him? They’re both dead if his crime lord brother, Knuckles (Daniel Wu), discovers that Rose is still alive. Marvin learns the hard way that the secret is out of the bag when he opens his office door and finds a deadly former acquaintance waiting.
Quan brings the same infectious and equally disparate energy that made his multiverse characters from Everything Everywhere All at Once so appealing. Marvin is both that likable, inoffensive guy everyone adores and a ruthless killer who decimated enemies at the behest of the cold-blooded and domineering Knuckles. Marvin got a chance to leave his gangster past behind for an honest life, making first-time homeowners happy and finding personal fulfillment in the process. The opening exposition hits the mark by providing a genuine basis for Marvin’s abandonment of his old self. But a sleeping tiger is still a vicious predator if forced to defend its territory.
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Love Is in the Air with a Fun Supporting Cast
DeBose also lights up the screen as the fiery Rose, but not because of their smoldering attraction. The rub is that Marvin doubts he can win the heart of a stunning beauty like Rose, despite always protecting her. Their journeys toward each other are predictable and not quite believable, but it works because they’re complementary in a sidekick kind of way. They’re a shaken two-liter of carbonated whoop-a** delivering dynamic duo punishment whenever the need arises.
5:25
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Love Hurts fills the romance quota with a pair of knockdown funny subplots of mismatched pairs accidentally finding kismet. Tipton and Mustafa Shakir steal the couple’s show when the real estate secretary and misunderstood mercenary realize they’re on the same sentimental page. This is one of the film’s best tenets and will have audiences rolling. Then there’s the bickering contract killers, Otis (André Eriksen) and King (Marshawn Lynch), also hunting Rose, but offering each other sound relationship advice between shredding people with machine guns.
A Fun Supporting Cast
The giggles don’t work without the requisite kicks. Love Hurts has bone-crushing action in spades. Famed stuntman turned hit director and producer David Leitch (John Wick, Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde) shepherds fellow stuntman and protégé Jonathan Eusebio in his debut feature. They play to Quan’s strengths with elaborately choreographed martial arts, but leave the gun and knife play to the other characters. Quan has eschewed firearms in his career resurgence. It’s a calculated decision that fits the persona he wants to project on screen. That said, Marvin can put a Michelin-starred butcher to shame with his slice and dice skills. Quan isn’t avoiding all weaponry.
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Love Hurts has logic gaps you could drive a truck through. There’s no reason why Marvin would stick around in relatively small Milwaukee with his picture plastered all over the place. It also makes no sense for Rose to stay when she’s Knuckles’ primary target. There’s a secondary villain tossed into the mix like adding an extra patty to a double burger. He doesn’t detract or add anything to the film. This character could easily have been cut, and it wouldn’t affect the overall storyline. There’s already enough creeps for Marvin to pummel.
Leitch and Eusebio keep a shotgun pace that never stagnates. Love Hurts breezes by in 83 minutes. There’s scant filler with a clear focus on escalating violence and accompanying humor. The filmmakers know what viewers want. They address that need without overthinking a straightforward premise. Set Quan on a path to success, surround him with a good ensemble, and their collective talents will overcome any script deficits for pure entertainment value. That’s a winning formula that I hope to see in the future adventures of Marvin and Rose.
Love Hurts is an 87North Production. It will be released theatrically on February 7th from Universal Pictures.
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