Who Was the Real Thief?

It’s not always easy to get through Valentine’s Day without thinking about past exes. It’s even harder for Marvin Gable, who left a life of crime to become a realtor, when an old flame shows up, dragging him back into his past life. The film is called Love Hurts, and it blends comedy and romance with high-intensity action.

The film has a winding plot with lots of action scenes and characters, and it can be hard to follow at times. It’s similar to films like Bullet Train, which is directed by Love Hurts producer David Leitch. Leitch also founded the production company behind Love Hurts, which has also made Nobody and The Fall Guy in 2024. Love Hurts has a stacked cast as well, with two of this decade’s Oscar winners, Ke Huy Quan and Ariana Debose. The film even has a reunion for two of the cast members of The Goonies, with a grown-up Sean Astin playing Ke Huy Quan’s boss.

Love Hurts

3.5
/5

Release Date

February 7, 2025

Director

JoJo Eusebio

Writers

Matthew Murray, Josh Stoddard, Luke Passmore

Who Stole from Whom? Where ‘Love Hurts’ Gets Messy

Love Hurts gets a little confusing. It’s difficult to track who works for whom, which people are enemies, and which people have stolen money. With action scenes happening frequently throughout the film, it’s even harder to tell what’s going on in this film.

The film revolves around a group of people who work for a criminal organization, led by Alvin “Knuckles” Gable (played by Daniel Wu). Knuckles is the main antagonist of the film, and his realtor brother, Ke Huy Quan’s Marvin Gable, is the protagonist. Marvin used to work under Knuckles and was ordered to eliminate Ariana Debose’s character, Rose, after she was thought to have stolen money from Knuckles. Rose was Knuckles’s second-in-command, and Marvin was in love with her, so he let her go, without Knuckles’s knowledge.

Rose returns to the city where Knuckles’s criminal organization operates, sending everyone into panic. Knuckles sends an assassin named Raven to find out what Marvin knows, but Raven fails. Knuckles’s new second-in-command, Renny Merlow, has a pair of mercenaries under him, who he commands to go after Marvin as well.

Meanwhile, Rose has uncovered a plot involving lots of stealing within the criminal organization. She has kidnapped Knuckles’s accountant, Kippy Betts (who’s played by comedian Rhys Darby), and forced him to spill the details about Knuckles’s finances. Kippy admits that he and Merlot stole money from Knuckles and used some of it to frame Rose. Kippy also reveals that Knuckles has been cheating his business partners.

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A Bloody Brawl Leads to a Dead Property Brother

Rose and Marvin are in one of the properties Marvin’s trying to sell when Rose reveals that she kidnapped Kippy. She’s interrogating Kippy in the laundry room when two of Marvin’s clients show up unannounced, saying they want to close on the sale of the home. Marvin tries to act like everything’s normal, keeping Kippy out of sight, and he calls his assistant, Ashley, to bring paperwork for the house. However, Ashley has fallen in love with Raven after she found his poetry on the floor of Marvin’s office. Raven overhears Marvin’s phone call and goes to the house with Ashley to finish the job.

Raven’s presence intimidates the buyers, and Marvin tries to act like everything’s normal, but Raven starts attacking Marvin. In the chaos, Kippy escapes and calls Merlow, telling him Rose and Marvin’s location. Merlow sends King and Otis to the house and tells them to get Rose and Marvin, even if they have to kill Raven in the process.

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As King and Otis arrive at the house, they pull out their guns. With weapons in hand, they walk past Marvin’s realtor rival, Jeff Zaks, who has a photo of himself in a karate uniform on all of his listings. Zaks is played by Drew Scott, a real-life home renovator from the TV series Property Brothers. Zaks rushes in and starts to help Marvin, but he’s quickly shot in the head by King and Otis.

Marvin works with Raven to take out King and Otis, but after they do, Raven still wants to kill Marvin. Ashley stops him, and she tells Marvin about her love for Raven. Marvin notices that Rose slipped out during the fight, and inspired by Ashley’s love for Raven, he goes after her.

The Film Ends with a Brotherly Brawl

Rose goes to Knuckles’s headquarters, where Knuckles is already in the process of killing Merlow after finding out that Merlow stole from him. Rose tells Knuckles that she knows he lied about his finances. Knuckles sends his lackeys after her. Marvin bursts through the doors to save Rose. Together, they take out all of Knuckles’s henchmen in a bloody action scene. Knuckles heads to his office, and Marvin follows him. There, Knuckles tells Marvin how he killed Marvin’s boss, who had become one of Marvin’s best friends in his life as a realtor.

Knuckles and Marvin have a brutal one-on-one fight, with Knuckles taunting Marvin, saying the realtor has never beaten the crime boss in a fight. Marvin triumphs over Knuckles, and while Knuckles sits on the floor defeated, Rose tells him that she told his Russian business partners how he cheated. Knuckles is dragged away by the Russians, and outside, Marvin tells Rose that he loves her. And they all live happily ever after.