Movie Review: Love Hurts

The thorough torching Love Hurts has received critically since its review embargo lifted a week ago today is something that I'm failing to understand. Disliking it? Sure. It has a cartoonish, chaotic and vaguely romantic vibe that is reminiscent of the type of projects Jackie Chan was making when he first made the leap to English-language cinema (Rumble in the Bronx, Mr. Nice Guy) before Rush Hour took his career to the next level that's going to be too corny for some viewers. But straight abomination status? Color me baffled! 

Outside of Ariana DeBose being painfully miscast as a snarky, badass lawyer for a criminal enterprise turned strip club bartender who sets this "regular guy forced to return to his criminal past" plot into motion and the 83-minute runtime being a smidge too short for a movie with such a crowded revenge narrative, I thought Love Hurts worked. Ke Huy Quan is a charming delight as the aforementioned regular guy with a violent past who's forced to dust off his killing boots when that past-which happens to be his mobster brother (Daniel Wu)- catches up with him. Director Jonathan Eusebio's extensive experience as a stunt performer/coordinator is on full display in the film's playful, exquisitely choreographed fights. There's a host of quirky, scene-stealing supporting characters (Lio Tipton as Quan's miserable co-worker at a real estate agency, Mustafa Shakir as a poetry-writing hitman, Marshawn Lynch and Andre Eriksen as bumbling mob enforcers who are trying to help each other through personal issues in between their failed attempts to subdue Quan) that nicely fit into the film's goofy universe. The slick cinematography and bone-crunching sound design are both very impressive for a relatively low budget ($18 mil) movie. At the end of the day, I had fun watching Love Hurts and I'm pretty sure that was the only intention that the creatives responsible for it had while they were making it.                  
 

Grade: B