Hot off his Oscar win, Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once) stars as a successful realtor with a violent past in the action-comedy Love Hurts.
Marvin Gable (Ke Huy Quan) loves his job and enjoys nothing more than finding the perfect house for wannabe homeowners. His slogan: “I Want This Home for You.” It’s a typical day at the office, going over lists of possible buyers with his assistant and looking forward to the Valentine’s Day office party, when he spots a crimson envelope. The message inside reads, “Hiding isn’t living.”
He’s just excused himself by saying he doesn’t feel so well when a hitman who goes by The Raven (Mustafa Shakir) suddenly shows up. The Raven’s looking for Rose (Ariana DeBose), an ex-associate of Marvin’s, and a fight breaks out. It becomes quite clear that Marvin hasn’t always been a realtor. In truth, he used to be an assassin for his brother, Knuckles (Daniel Wu), an underworld crime boss.
Escaping the office after knocking out The Raven, Marvin is forced to re-engage with the life he’d tried to leave behind. He’s dragged back into the assassin world, running from (or fighting off) more hitmen and running into Rose, the woman he secretly loves and whose death he faked to save her from Knuckles.
Rose, however, is tired of hiding and wants to get her life back by taking on Marvin’s brother. But she’ll need Marvin’s help if her plan is ever going to work. “If we’re going to stop your brother, I’m going to need the old you … not the realtor,” says Rose.
The uninspired and uneven Love Hurts is a chaotic action film with fight scenes that mimic Jackie Chan’s style and a love story that falls flat. It’s a lightweight John Wick rip-off.
The only saving grace in the film is Ke Huy Quan’s performance as Marvin Gable, whose smiling, sort of goofy realtor persona masks the trained killer he used to be. Quan delivers a funny, entertaining performance as a put-upon man forced to return to the monster he never wanted to be to save himself and the woman he loves. The film’s best moments occur within its opening 20 minutes, as Martin’s selling homes to happy couples, followed by an intense martial arts fight with The Raven, complete with an apology for the knockout.
Sadly, Quan’s performance is not enough to make the film worth sitting through, with fight scenes that quickly become tiresome and a romance that has no spark. And Quan and DeBose have zero chemistry on screen.
The tone of the movie is also a major issue, with tongue-in-cheek dialogue and comical fight scenes transitioning to over-the-top, bloody, and violent death scenes. It’s a mishmash of action, violence, and comedy that never finds its rhythm or balance.
Love Hurts is a weak take on the classic retired killer being drawn back to his old world story. In a word, it’s forgettable.
GRADE: C-
MPAA Rating: R for strong, bloody violence and language throughout
Release Date: February 7, 2025
Running Time: 1 hour 23 minutes
Directed By: JoJo Eusebio
Studio: Universal Pictures
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