Love Hurts (2025)
One of Hollywood's biggest comeback stories of the past decade is Ke Huy Quan. After largely fading from public view following his iconic performances as a child actor in The Goonies and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Quan came back in 2022 to win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Everything Everywhere All At Once. His new outing, the kung-fu romance flick Love Hurts, is decidedly less successful.
Quan plays Marvin Gable, a suburban
Milwaukee realtor with a dark past. He used to be a hired killer for his
brother's (Daniel Wu) crime syndicate. Marvin fled after allowing Rose (Ariana
Debose) to live after stealing from his brother. Rose surfaces, as do a variety
of hitmen (including former NFL star Marshawn Lynch).
That's about it for plot. While many
modern movies could stand to tell their stories more economically, the
83-minute Love Hurts still feels undercooked in the plot department. The
script is just an excuse to string fight scenes together. Aside from some
creative staging in an early kitchen fight scene, the fights are forgettable,
except for a few gross-out moments.
The other major problem is Love
Hurts needs the viewers to feel the chemistry between Marvin and Rose. But
despite Quan and Debose both being Oscar winners, there is little spark between
the pair. Granted, the script gives them little to work with.
Fans of The Goonies might be
amused to see Sean Astin sharing the screen with Quan again as his realtor
boss, but, other than that novelty, there is not much to recommend here.
