Weekend Watch: Love Hurts

Ke Huy Quan-Wick?

Image Credit: Universal

Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, where I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Ke Huy Quan is a mild-mannered realtor with a secret. Follow James on Twitter: @jamwhite, Threads/Instagram: @jammerwhite and Blue Sky: @jammerwhite.bsky.social

Ke Huy Quan as a real estate agent who is so sweet natured that he bakes cookies for both clients and says “fudge!” when he needs to swear? I totally buy that.

Ke Huy Quan as a stone-cold badass who uses any household object in lethal fashion and is stone-faced while killing opponents? That’s a bit more of a stretch.

Which is not a knock on Quan, the talented actor with a compelling second-act career story and a well-deserved Oscar for his turn in Everything Everywhere All At Once, where he did manage to convincingly pull off the dual-personality trick. Yet All At Once was a far superior film to Love Hurts, a tonally confused action-comedy offering that serves as his big leading role. It doesn’t really deserve the committed performance that Quan offers.

Here, he plays Marvin Gable, a cheery realtor working in Milwaukee who bikes to work, enjoys helping people and would barely say boo to a goose. But when his past –– represented by old criminal colleague Rose (Ariana DeBose) shows back up, Marvin’s old life and his new collide in the most violent fashion, and he finds himself once again facing down crime lord brother Knuckles (Daniel Wu).

Rolling off the 87North production pipeline that also brought us the likes of Violent Night and Nobody, Love Hurtsfollows a familiar template: someone you wouldn’t expect to be capable of dispatching villains and gangsters turns out (at least in Nobody’s case) to have a history of just that. In fact, this new film is so much like the 2021 Bob Odenkirk effort that you wonder why the team didn’t come up with a fresher concept. The details may differ, but the core is almost identical.

And unlike Nobody, this one doesn’t have the balance right. Debut director Jonathan Eusebio (promoted from the ranks of stunties and co-ordinators in 87North’s typical fashion) has a handle on the fights and certainly doesn’t embarrass himself in terms of basic filmmaking. But the whole just doesn’t hang together.

The supporting characters are largely a collection of quirky criminals, though none of them are really all that memorable. DeBose barely has a personality to work with, but does what she can, while the others are either more walking jokes and archetypes than actual humans.

As mentioned, the action is impressive in places (because these films tend to be delivery systems for entertaining stunt sequences) and Quan, who has years of training in the field, delivers. But while there are show-stopping clashes (particularly one in a kitchen), the big final rumble between Marvin and Knuckles is so generic as to release all the tension from the movie.

Love might hurt, but the disappointment you might feel here could be worse.

Love Hurts is in US and UK cinemas now.