Last year I reviewed an action movie that I had incredibly high hopes for based on its cast and action-proficient filmmakers, called Argylle. While the movie had its moments, ultimately, it was a pretty big mess. A little over a year to the date at which that film premiered, I found myself about 70 minutes into Love Hurts thinking, “This is 2025’s Argylle; just only slightly better.” That is not really a great thing.
The production company 87 North has a really fantastic track record. From John Wick to The Fall Guy, there haven’t been any films to come out of the production house that I’ve actually disliked. And thankfully, Love Hurts manages to avoid the dishonor of being the first, but admittedly just barely. It has its strong points, for sure. However, it officially marks the bottom of the list in terms of ranking the company’s library.
The film centers on mild mannered, friendly realtor, Marvin Gable (Ke Huy Quan). Spending his days baking cookies and showing couples and families the homes of their dreams, Marvin takes pride in his quiet and peaceful life. Unbeknownst to the people around him, Marvin’s past as a former assassin rears its ugly head when he suddenly receives a Valentine’s card from a former colleague named Rose (Ariana DeBose). The card and Rose’s schemes, end up pulling Marvin back into the assassination game, as he and Rose flee from his criminal brother Knuckles (Daniel Wu). Will Marvin decide to continue hiding, or will he finally start living, and fight for his freedom?
Though the flaws outnumber its assets, there’s still a lot to like about Love Hurts; specifically its action set pieces. Regardless of how simple, good, or bad their movies’ scripts or characters might be, the one thing we simply cannot deny is 87 North’s ability to deliver on action. And Love Hurts does. It’s definitely the reason to see this movie. From a very early bone crunching fight sequence in Marvin’s tiny office to the final showdown between Marvin and Knuckles, the stunt work and fight scenes are astonishingly choreographed and executed strongly (apart from one minor issue I’ll get to below). It helps considerably that Quan and Wu are fantastic in action roles, having themselves had several years of experience in stunt work, and lightning fast reflexes. Fists fly, furniture breaks, and Quan and the filmmakers pay homage to classic Jackie Chan films with a blend of resourceful prop comedy and hard hitting kicks. The fights are light, fast, exciting, and impressive.
Quan is absolutely born to be an action star. And it’s easy to see why he was selected to be the lead; especially after his turn in Everything Everywhere All At Once. There’s a very unassuming and optimistic demeanor to Marvin, and Quan plays that aspect of the character with a bright and chipper charm. However, in an instant, the versatile performer can switch to a stone cold killer and an absolute badass. Marvin’s character is essentially a Hulk, and given his versatility, Quan is the perfect actor to seamlessly switch between the different personalities of the character believably.
Additionally, the film is actually stolen by a lot of its supporting cast. Mustafa Shakir and Lio Tipton have an incredible and hilarious subplot in the film, forming an unexpected kinship rooted in death and poetry. Shakir is another charismatic and underrated performer, who alternates between menacing one moment, and tender and soft the next, without ever coming off cheesy or out of character. Whereas Tipton provides a terrific everyman relatability with their fantastic comedic delivery, and a sweet sense of chemistry with Shakir.
Additionally, the other team that walks away with the movie is the hilarious buddy duo of Marshawn Lynch and André Eriksen. Playing incompetent lackeys of Cam Giganet’s Merlo, Lynch and Eriksen are hysterical, and understood the assignment of how to bicker about stealing teddy bears and reconciling with old girlfriends. Their comedic bromantic chemistry is on full display, bringing a sense of fun and appropriate comic relief to the movie when it needs it the most. Lynch is a born actor, with comedic delivery on par with other surprise athletic actors like Dave Bautista and John Cena. They also deliver some really amazing action beats alongside Quan and Shakir.
Unfortunately, while the above strengths make the movie just barely worthwhile, I must sadly report that Love Hurts is a pretty big mess. And that falls onto the shoulders of first-time director, and fellow Filipino, Jonathan Eusebio. Though he’s been in the industry a long time, and contributed beautifully to the stunt work of so many of 87 North’s productions, as well as Black Panther, Eusebio’s first film just doesn’t gel the way he wants it to. And much of that boils down to the decisions he makes, clashing with an unnecessarily convoluted script, courtesy of scribes Matthew Murray, Josh Stoddard, and Luke Passmore.
It’s fitting that the film has three separate screenwriters, because it feels like the product of three separate films smashed into one, weaving back and forth into one another clumsily. One moment you have the A-plot surrounding the conflict between Marvin and Knuckles due to Rose’s sudden appearance. The next, its interweaving with Merlo trying to go after Marvin and Rose, while staying ahead of Knuckles, his boss. Then that’s intertwined with a played-for-laughs romantic subplot between Tipton and Shakir. However, the romance between Rose and Marvin also needs to be addressed. There’s just too much screwball randomness going on when the movie doesn’t need any of it. In this case, less would be more. Selling a movie based on the action and Quan’s performance should be enough. Just look at the John Wick films. However, watching this movie feels like watching every bizarre character the movie has shoved into a jar of storylines, and having that jar shake aggressively for 90 minutes.
It doesn’t help that Eusebio gums up the text even more by making some pretty bizarre choices as a filmmaker. One thing he kept doing that totally made things distracting was his frequent non-sequential cutting back and forth between characters making speeches. One sequence cuts between Marvin having an inner-monologue, Rose having an inner-monologue, Knuckles interrogating and murdering a man (with a boba straw — which is pretty awesome), and Knuckles burning up a building; all interrupting the flow of one another. As this was playing out, I had no idea what was going on and with whom or when. And that lack of communication and clarity is the one thing Eusebio needed to achieve in a movie that should have been a bit more simple. Alas, he doesn’t. Also while I respect the film noir influence, why do any of these characters need an inner-monologue to begin with, much less two? It truly added nothing to the film.
The best directors should also get the best performances out of their ensemble. And while I’ve stated my admiration for Quan, Lynch, Lipton, Shakir, and Eriksen, the rest of the ensemble doesn’t fare as well. DeBose goes way too broad with her femme fatale impression. We’re meant to believe her cattiness and attitude is pure charisma, but it very much felt disingenuous because she goes way too over the top. Worst of all, she has such limited chemistry with Quan. There’s a spackling of sweetness there between them, but for the most part it doesn’t work. I found myself completely uninvested in their romantic relationship, finding myself more drawn to Tipton and Shakir’s instead. Simultaneously, Wu’s line delivery feels incredibly stilted and unemotional. Even when he expresses anger in the film, it feels flat. These are two terrific actors, and under the right vision, I’m sure they would have performed better (though between Argylle, Kraven, and now this, one has to question the trajectory of DeBose’s career as an actress nowadays).
The film is also poorly paced, strangely edited, and tonally all over the place. It kicks off very promisingly with a terrific fight scene between Quan and Shakir. However, there are long stretches of time where nothing is happening but character inner-monologuing and realty shenanigans, which drag down the pace of a short 90-minute film. Furthermore, it can’t decide whether it wants to be a grounded action movie, an homage to Hong Kong action films, an ensemble crime movie ala Pulp Fiction, a straight comedy, or a rom com. It tries to weave all of these elements together, but the result is neither exciting nor consistently funny, it’s just mostly just stale and tedious, with far too many characters and conveniences. There’s a massive deus ex machina at the end as well that comes out of nowhere, for instance, and the movie has to take time to have a character explain what’s happening, which frankly flabbergasted me.
As previously mentioned, the action scenes do save things from getting dull. However they’re not shot exceptionally well either. With movies like Nobody, The Fall Guy, or the gorgeous cinematography in John Wick: Chapter 4 showcasing magnificently clear and fluid action scenes with some unique and subtle flair, Love Hurts should ideally follow suit. However, the camera work during the set pieces was overly chaotic at times; particularly the final sequences. If the scenes weren’t so impressively choreographed and performed, I’m not sure they would have stood out the way they needed to (and ultimately did).
On the positive side though, it’s really difficult for me to entirely dislike a movie with such a strong POC showing. I admire the fact that Love Hurts is a film that truly features AAPI representation in front of and behind the camera. Hell it even pays tribute to boba. As a Filipino, I’m also quite pleased we had a director make a movie this big, with a star as terrific as Quan. Additionally, I’m happy that someone generally known for stunt choreography in the background of a film is finally getting a shot behind the camera. Having a very diverse African American cast as well is also wonderful, given DeBose is in a leading role, and Lynch and Shakir are two of the film’s strongest assets.
Having said all that, admittedly Love Hurts is a perfectly sweet, but incredibly flawed, action packed Valentine. Many of its shortcomings are at least saved thanks to wonderful set pieces and a stellar badass performance from Quan. Though oddly enough, its supporting cast may just be the film’s secret weapon: particularly scene stealers Shakir, Tipton, and Lynch. That being said, despite great representation and a few highlights, Love Hurts simply just falls short of expectations. With a better script, better editing, and better directorial choices, I actually think this could have been a new action masterpiece from the makers of Nobody and John Wick. However, at the end of the day, the thing that hurts more than love is the disappointing result of a film that was once so promising.
Overall Score (on an entertainment level): C+
Overall Score (on a representation level): A
