Love Hurts

This weekend, Love Hurts, a new action comedy starring Ke Huy Quan, releases in theaters. Love Hurts follows relator Marvin Gable when he is pulled back into his former life of crime when a former partner resurfaces. This was one of my most anticipated movies of the year mostly due to Ke Huy Quan getting to star in a movie. He has had such a cool story. He started as a child actor in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Goonies. Unfortunately, his career took a bit of a downturn, and he didn't get any roles and mainly did stunts. His first role in 20 years earned him an Oscar back in 2022 and he has been having a big comeback ever since.

I had quite a bit of fun with this movie. It was cool to see Ke Huy Quan be the lead in a movie. I thought he was great as the sweet realtor/former crime boss grunt. I enjoyed the action sequences in the movie. I thought they had a similar style to that of John Wick. It was fun to see Ke Huy Quan fight all these bad guys with random house objects and office supplies. The fight choreography is also pretty well done with all of this gun-fu and fast fighting. The movie also delivers quite a bit of humor with most of it landing. The tone reminded me of Bullet Train with the movie not taking much of itself too seriously. The vibe of the movie is a mix of romance, marital arts, and a little bit of western but all of them fit together pretty well. I also liked how the movie wastes no time getting in on the action. It moves at a pretty brisk pace leaving no time for any fat or a chance for the movie to slow down. It was also fun to have a bit of a goonies reunion with Sean Austin having a side role in the film. This is just a fun mid-budget throwback action B movie.

One of the main issues I had was that there were a few too many random side-character plots. There was this whole romance between one of the assassins and Marvin's assistant that just didn't need to be there. When the movie is only 80 minutes, you don't have time to waste on side characters. Along the same lines, I thought that the movie was a little too short. I think it could have been 15-20 minutes longer, had a few more action sequences, and a little less of the side character stuff. It reminds me a bit of The Killers Game from 2024 but without as many of the mistakes.

Overall, this was a fun little B action movie that gave a starring role to a well-deserved actor. It wasn't trying to be a great action movie and that is ok. It was still fun and kept me entertained for 80 minutes.

Score: 6.5/10 Grade: B- Recommendation: Check it out