Matthew Lomas
Matthew LomasValentine’s Day, like many other holidays, always brings about a lot of interesting films. While there aren’t a lot of traditional love stories that popped up, there is one that I found attractive called Love Hurts. Ke Huy Quan and Ariana DeBose headline this unexpected romantic action comedy that involves mobsters, hitmen, and a few gorgeous houses to call home!
Ke Huy Quan plays Marvin, a mob enforcer turned real estate agent. Marvin lives a quiet life until he gets a letter from Rose, a mob lawyer who he helped to escape by faking her death. This letter sets off a chain of events that will forever change Marvin’s new life and put everyone he cares about in the crosshairs of his brother.
Ke Huy Quan truly shines in this film as he puts his acting chops and fighting chops together beautifully. His character of Marvin is a perfect blend of kindness and desperate cruelty that helps to illuminate the struggle within him throughout the film. Ariana DeBose does a great job of being a threat to nearly every person in the film, but still having the right kind of charm to have the audience rooting for her side of things.
The one bad thing about these two is that I didn’t buy into their written chemistry. It is established early on through inner monologues that the two love each other, but there is very little in terms of body language and verbal cues that seem to show that. Three scenes do their best to establish the chemistry that they are going for and both actors do their best to work with that.
The supporting cast has some household names like Sean Astin, Drew Scott, Daniel Wu, and Marshawn Lynch who each have their moment in the spotlight. However, two actors truly steal the show and have the best chemistry in the film: Lio Tipton and Mustafa Shakir. Lio Tipton plays Marvin’s Assistant Ashley, while Mustafa Shakir plays an old rival of Marvin’s named Raven.
These two are absolutely perfect together and are the highlights of every single scene that they are in. While I highly doubt that this world will be explored again in the future, I would love to have a mini-series or short film following Ashley and Raven as they go through hijinks.
The two big reasons to see this movie are the action and the comedy. The action is stylistic and creative in a way that allows Ke Huy Quan to shine and for some of the other actors to show what they’ve got. Two brutal deaths happen in this film, one for dramatic effect and the other for comedic purposes, which points to how amazing and ridiculous this film is. The action is not quite at a John Wick level, but I think it will satisfy those who are still waiting for Ballerina to come out later this year.
The comedy is rather well done, although it does fluctuate from being light-hearted and dark it could set itself up for confusion. Fortunately the film separates these types of humor between certain groups so that you don’t get comedic whiplash from the back-and-forth. The two characters who have the best comedic lines in the film have to be Marshawn Lynch’s King and André Erickson’s Otis. While most of this is by design in the script, the two actors do a great job of bouncing off of each other and delivering their scenes perfectly.
Overall, I believe that Love Hurts is a good Valentine’s Day film. It carries a good message with it and a bountiful amount of laughs and action. I don’t know if this film is within the top ten Valentine’s Day films, but I could see it making a name for itself in the next few years as more and more people see it. I hope that we get to see Ke Huy Quan in more leading man roles as he continues to show that he is a great actor! If you are interested in other films involving complicated relationships, consider checking out my review for Companion right here.
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50 Love Hurts
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Pros
- Inventive Action Scenes
- Great Supporting Cast
- Decent Amount of Laughs
Cons
- Lack of Chemistry Among Lead Characters
- No Memorable Soundtrack
