Even Ke Huy Quan can’t save ‘Love Hurts’ from sloppy filmmaking

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Love scars.

Synopsis

Marvin Gable (Key Huy Quan) is a successful realtor who has left his former life as a hitman behind. It turns out Love Hurts when Marvin’s ex-girlfriend Rose (Ariana DeBose), who he was supposed to kill, comes back into his life. What does she want? Marvin’s not sure, but what he does know is that his estranged criminal brother “Knuckles” (Daniel Wu), who Marvin worked for, is furious about this situation, sending hitmen to kill them both.

My thoughts

87North is one of those production companies that always piques my interest whenever I see their logo attached to a movie. It was founded as 87Eleven in 2014 by David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, who both directed the first John Wick movie. In other words, it’s a production company that’s all about stunt-filled action movies created and run by actual stuntmen.

That’s not to say their output has been perfect. The John Wick series is a masterpiece of action filmmaking, no doubt, but the rest of their projects have never quite reached the same heights. Usually, it’s because the stories and characters aren’t as compelling as the Wick universe, but if there’s one thing you can at least expect 87North to deliver, it’s quality action scenes and stunts.

Bold and brash

It wasn’t just 87North that made me want to check out Love Hurts, but Ke Huy Quan, starring as the lead, was the cherry on top. Not only is the guy just a fantastic actor with seemingly infinite charisma, but he also has what it takes to be a compelling action star. Everything Everywhere All at Once gave us plenty of Key Huy Quan beating dudes to a pulp, so Love Hurts seemed like a solid vehicle for him to keep showing off those action skills.

Quan does get to show off his chops in both the acting and action departments, but he can only do so much when he has nothing to do with the writing, directing, or anything else. He’s loads of fun to watch, as always, but he’s forced to navigate a movie that makes absolutely no sense while occasionally having to contend with some murderous thugs.

The fight scenes are competent enough and feature the quality stunt work and violence you want from 87North. The beginning kitchen fight between Quan, Marshawn “Beastmode” Lynch (that’s literally how he’s credited), and André Eriksen was pretty great, especially with the novel use of the setting. The rest of the action sequences fail to match this bit, resorting to barrages of gunfire and your standard punch-kick fare, which is too bad.

Worst of all, these action scenes are too few and far between. You get two within the first 15 minutes, and with the brief 83-minute runtime, one would think it’s going to be a non-stop romp of Quan having to go through a gauntlet of baddies.

Sadly, that is not the case, as everything from this moment until the action-packed final 15 minutes is nothing but slop: sloppy writing, sloppy direction, sloppy editing, sloppy effects; it’s all here.

So, you get an action movie with 30 minutes of mild fun sandwiched between one of the most boring and incomprehensible plots you can struggle to conceive of. I know nobody watches action movies for their deep storylines, but I at least kind of need to know what’s going on to enjoy myself. Even if the plot is simple and stupid, it should at least make sense.

It fails on practically every level, mostly because the movie has absolutely no idea what it’s trying to be. There’s no consistent character motivation or emotional core, for one thing. The story starts with Rose coming back into Marvin’s life, so you think she’s going to be the one who has a beef with him. Then, it becomes a story about brotherhood and family ties when Marvin’s brother “Knuckles” enters the picture. Neither of these stories works.

The choppy editing from Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir doesn’t help much, with many scenes feeling like they’ve been cut abruptly. Perhaps this is the fault of the direction and writing, but this movie is jumping all over the place without any rhyme or reason. I lost track of how many times it would cut to a new scene, and I was confused about how we got there.

Romance is dead

Love Hurts somehow has three screenwriters, but it’s obvious there were too many cooks in the kitchen to stretch out this barebones idea. Numerous subplots involve side characters navigating their feelings of love on Valentine’s Day. Still, these just serve to screw up the pace and make the movie even more tedious and confusing than it already is.

To use the first John Wick as an example, that movie has one of the easiest and most straightforward plots you can think of to get the audience immediately invested. A widower’s dog is killed by mobsters, and it turns out he’s a hitman who’s coming out of retirement to seek revenge. Easy peasy. You immediately get it. Love Hurts follows the same ex-hitman getting pulled back into his past life clichés, but all the context is obscured in the poor storytelling.

John Wick also had a lot of style in its presentation, which is another department where Love Hurts is sorely lacking. It’s directed by Jonathan Eusebio, a stuntman who has coordinated and choreographed dozens of popular action films over the years, including other 87North productions like Violent Night, The Fall Guy, and John Wick’s. When it comes to stunt work and action choreography, the guy knows his stuff.

But just because you have great stunt coordinating skills doesn’t mean those skills automatically translate into great directing skills. Directing a whole movie involves much more than just planning your action scenes. You have to have a vision: knowing how to tell a story, shoot it creatively, pace and structure it properly, work with your actors to get good performances, and so much more. Not everybody can be Chad Stahelski, I guess.

It’s sad because Ke Huy Quan is fantastic in the lead role, making the most of the confusing characterization. Being the consummate professional, he’s probably giving the material more effort than it deserves. When the time calls for it, Quan delivers the goods, whether delivering a monologue or beating people up. I hope he gets to star in more future projects that are worthy of his talents.

Quan’s chemistry with Ariana DeBose is non-existent, which I don’t think is what you want for an action movie centered around Valentine’s Day (not like the movie does anything with the holiday gimmick).

Not only does the 19-year age difference make their love harder to believe, but it also makes it feel like the characters have contempt for one another. We have two Oscar-winning actors here, yet the writers and director here failed to do anything with them together.

Final verdict

There’s nothing worse than watching an 83-minute movie and feeling like you’ve been in the theater longer than when you saw The Brutalist. Normally, a short runtime like that is at least some sort of good sign. “Hey, even if this movie blows, at least it’s short.” Well, Love Hurts proves Roger Ebert’s saying, “No good movie is long enough, and no bad movie is short enough.”

Ke Huy Quan, Ariana DeBose, and the rest of the cast definitely deserve a better script than this. Even an action movie about Valentine’s Day titled Love Hurts deserves a better script than this. Seriously, just look up “Love Hurts kitchen fight scene” on YouTube in a couple of months and you’ll see literally the only scene somewhat worth watching. In the meantime, spend your Valentine’s Day doing literally anything else.