Love Hurts
Love Hurts
A realtor is pulled back into the life he left behind after his former partner-in-crime resurfaces with an ominous message. With his crime-lord brother also on his trail, he must confront his past and the history he never fully buried.
Alex | Pop Culture Brain reviewedFebruary 7, 2025
This is the first big disappointment of 2025. I was pretty amped for this movie going in . Ke Huy Quan was getting a big shot at stardom. And he was perfectly cast in an 87 North movie, who made the John Wick movies, Bullet Train, Nobody, The Fall Guy. Here's the good news Quan is a blast to watch as usual. He's charming and effortlessly powerful. There is no denying that he's an action star and I hope he gets even more movies like this. Speaking of which, the action scenes here are a good time. There's only 4 of them. But they're engaging, intense, and surprisingly bloody. They're mostly at the beginning and end of the movie which was a kind of odd choice, but they are what most viewers will come to this movie for and they do deliver. It's also a good thing they were there because otherwise this movie was rough. It's got a paper thin plot that that tries but fails to get deep. It wants to say things about love, free will, and fighting the darkness in ourselves, but it all comes out super cliche. Speaking of which the writing is very trope heavy. The middle of the film played like watered down Tarantino. It beat you over the head with repeated exposition and dead obvious voice over. That reeked of studio notes hoping to make the movie easier to understand while the viewer is looking at their phone. Which is a bummer because 87 North’s stylized action comedies are usually better written and crafted than this. Some of the kills were also unnecessarily cruel just for shock value. And sadly Ke Huy Quan and Ariana Debose have no chemistry and unfortunately the movie hinges on their chemistry, so that's not good. Anyway, because of Quan’s raw talent and the movie’s fun action scenes this film is probably going to do numbers on streaming. And maybe that's fine, but otherwise I'm disappointed.