Marvin Gable, played by Ke Huy Quan, is a successful realtor whose past as a violent hitman comes back to haunt him when his brother Knuckles, played by Daniel Wu, hunts him down. The film also stars Ariana DeBose, Marshawn Lynch, Mustafa Shakir, Lio Tipton, Rhys Darby, André Eriksen, Cam Gigandet, and Sean Astin. The film comes from co-producer former stuntman-turned-director, David Leitch. With the film capitalizing on violence and action, it seemed like an easy sell, especially with two Oscar winners in the lead roles. With only an 83-minute runtime, I had my reservations… and I’d say I was about half right on how the movie turned out.

This is in no means a bad movie nor is any good. I never thought to myself this should end, even when the runtime surprisingly made the film longer. The film feeling longer than what it actually is comes down to how the film throws you right into it. It wastes no time getting you right into it. Ke Huy Quan is such a super likable actor and I am thrilled to see him get his spotlight here. Unfortunately, it feels like the rest of the movie is banking on the success of the actor.

Anyone looking for something mindless who just want a good time, I don’t think you’ll have a bad time for it. If I spent money on it, I wouldn’t be mad, but I also wouldn’t pay money to see it again. The action is exciting with some top-notch bone-crunching action. It’s not until the third act where the film finally finds the right tone and leans into the kind of action I was looking for here.

The humor works about half the time. The supporting cast of characters are hilarious and keep the film engaging. There is a hilarious side plot involving Ke Huy Quan’s employee and a hitman that fully embraced the film’s holiday. Marshawn Lynch continues to show comedic range in his performance alongside André Eriksen, who gave as great of a performance. The humor outside of that can be so forced and unnatural. It comes off too silly to try to maintain the pacing. Instead, it comes off too cheesy, which is one of the reasons I had my eyes rolling.

I also had my eyes rolling based on how mediocre the script was. It was like the film was banking on Ke Huy Quan’s success that a script formed around him. The dialogue is corny and completely unrealistic. There way too many villains involved that it becomes too difficult on who you should care about. The plot is so convoluted that it needs to time to stop for heavy exposition. The film also doesn’t know what it wants to be at times. The music makes it sound like it’s set in the 70’s. The production design literally just looks like pristine movie sets that don’t even closely resemble anything realistically.

The chemistry between Ke Huy Quan & Ariana DeBose is also one of the film’s worst traits. You have two Oscar winners alongside each other. DeBose’s career post-West Side Story needs to be sutdied. She’s a talented actress and the script does no favors for her. The way she is even introduced in the film makes zero sense. I didn’t believe at all that these two characters were into each other, especially with that age gap.

Speaking on something that makes no sense is why this needed to be set around Valentine’s Day. Aside from one small storyline involving supporting characters, it makes no sense. It was like the film needed something to fit its release date. I am not mad about it, but I am just confused. There was potential here to make it more fitting to the themes. It’s not fun or exciting. The only love I see here is that it is a love letter to Ke Huy Quan as a stunt man and as an actor.

On a side note, that Goonies reunion was nice.

Overall, Love Hurts was a let down. I wanted more based on the talent in the movie. I’ll take it for what it was. I certainly didn’t have a bad time, but I also can’t see myself wanting to rewatch it. I can’t imagine this ending Ke Huy Quan’s career, but I do hope whatever he does next is better. It’s fun and mindless in the right areas, but also lacking in terms of writing, pacing, and tone.

VERDICT: 2.5/5 (Okay)