‘Love Hurts’: Review

Dir: Jonathan Eusebio. US. 2025. 83mins 

Capitalising on his Oscar-winning comeback role in Everything Everywhere All At Once, Ke Huy Quan headlines Love Hurts, a formulaic action-comedy that makes little use of the actor’s charm. Backed by 87North Productions, the company behind the John Wick films as well other, cheekier high-octane actioners, the picture finds Quan playing a seemingly mild-mannered man who is drawn back into his old life as an elite hitman once a former infatuation (Ariana DeBose) re-enters his orbit. The perfunctory martial-arts sequences and convoluted plotting conspire to make this a painfully uninspired proposition.

 A painfully uninspired proposition

Universal unveils the film on February 7, hoping to lure in action fans a week before Captain America: Brave New World dominates the box office. (Love Hurts’ Valentine’s Day setting could also make it a date-night option for couples looking for something that mixes romance with a body count.) The presence of two recent Oscar recipients may be somewhat enticing, but it is more likely that fans of 87North’s surprise 2021 hit Nobody, which was also about an everyman who actually possessed lethal fighting skills, will be most intrigued by this similarly-themed film. 

Quan stars as Marvin, a successful Milwaukee real estate agent who radiates positive, nerdy energy. But when an intimidating enforcer named The Raven (Mustafa Shakir) shows up at his office, determined to do him harm, we learn that Marvin was once a savage assassin for his brother, crime boss Knuckles (Daniel Wu). Soon after, Rose (DeBose), who also used to work for Knuckles, visits Marvin. Back when Marvin was a hitman, he had been directed to kill her because she stole money from Knuckles but, because he loved her, he let her go, ordering Rose to get off the grid — a plea she did not heed. Now, years later, Rose has a plan to destroy Knuckles’ criminal empire, and she needs Marvin’s assistance.

Directed by first-time feature filmmaker and former stunt coordinator Jonathan Eusebio, Love Hurts boasts practically the same premise as Nobody, which starred Bob Odenkirk as an office drone and family man who is secretly an assassin. (A sequel is due this summer.) Certainly, Quan can fit the mould of a genial nobody, creating high expectations for when Marvin inevitably returns to his old self and starts cracking skulls and executing acrobatic maneuvres to dispatch a series of goons.

Unfortunately, those familiar with the action-comedies of 87North, which is run by producers Kelly McCormick and The Fall Guy director David Leitch, will have already seen much of what Love Hurts has to offer. Whether it’s Nobody or 2022’s Violent Night, which imagined a saintly Santa Claus who was once a Viking warrior, the company’s relatively low-budget projects often get their laughs from the juxtaposition of ostensibly kindly individuals engaged in hyper-violent fight scenes. But the novelty has long since faded, and so watching Marvin engage in slickly choreographed melees provokes little laughter. While Quan does a decent amount of his own stunts, the predictably over-the-top hand-to-hand combat sequences lack the crazed ingenuity that once made these types of bone-crushing set pieces memorable.

Not helping matters is the shopworn script, which unconvincingly charts Marvin’s desire to break free from his violent past and embrace the happier, more domestic life he now has. Beyond serving as a boringly sassy love interest, Rose exists primarily to tell Marvin that he needs to stop hiding — only by really confronting his past will he ever truly be free — but Quan cannot bring much poignancy to a character arc so underdeveloped. Plus, he and DeBose exhibit very little chemistry, making it hard to believe they once possessed any spark. Many in the supporting cast are equally flat, with Wu a decidedly uninteresting villain. 

As Marvin and Rose try to stay alive while navigating an overly complicated plot involving revenge, stolen money and dirty dealings, Love Hurts does find a few whiffs of pleasure from two unlikely sources. An amusing subplot starring Lio Tipton as Marvin’s checked-out assistant Ashley, who inexplicably falls for The Raven, hints at the kind of goofy absurdity that might have made this picture more freewheeling. And, in a nod to Quan’s child-actor past, his former Goonies co-star Sean Astin has a small role as Marvin’s bighearted boss Cliff, who has no idea about his employee’s previous penchant for bloody carnage.