Love Hurts: Ke Huy Quan & Ariana DeBose Deliver Action-Packed Chaos in 87North’s Latest

Ke Huy Quan and Ariana Debose Lead 87North’s Latest Action Comedy ‘Love Hurts’

What do you get when you throw two Academy Award winning actors into a chaotic action comedy filled with romance, epic stunts and a killer soundtrack? You get 87North’s Love Hurts starring Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once) and Ariana Debose (West Side Story). Though this call sheet is peppered with plenty of other talented actors, the film mostly benefits from how precious and lovable Key Huy Quan is on screen. Love Hurts also stars Lio Tipton (Crazy Stupid Love) as Marvin’s cynical assistant Ashley, Cam Gigandet (Never Back Down) as treacherous underling Renny, Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings) as real estate legend Cliff and Marshawn “Beastmode” Lynch (Bottoms) as trigger-happy King.

Quan plays Marvin Gable, a suburban real estate agent only ever armed with quirky glasses and a smile. Marvin is kind, considerate, approachable and sweet as heart shaped candy. Though he received the award for Best Realtor in the Region, it seems Gable might’ve been well down another career path before pivoting into this one. Every day of Marvin’s life seems gloriously mundane. With his face plastered on every bus bench in Milwaukee, it’s clear Marvin has left his mysterious life of murder and crime behind him. Until it arrives on his doorstep, blades bloody and guns blazing!

Gable spends this Valentine’s Day failing to outrun his past, fighting every assassin his estranged brother and gang lord Knuckles (Daniel Wu) can throw at him, until coming face to face with the very reason he defected—a woman called Rose. Played by Academy Award winner Ariana Debose, Rose is a leopard-print-wearing moustache-drawing shotgun-shooting badass assassin using Gable to clear her name and start over. Despite how the film is packaged, what it lacks in romance and comedy is made up for in action.

With David Leitch’s 87North leading the charge, it’s no surprise this film is packed with intense action, despite the cringiness of its dialogue. For those unfamiliar with Leitch’s game, this industry legend is responsible for giving us some of this century’s greatest action. From John Wick to Atomic Blonde to Nobody, Leitch recently wowed the world with his homage to the industry and stunt performers in The Fall Guy starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. The Fall Guy turned out to be one of 2024’s most underrated gems, flying criminally low under the radar at the box office but remaining a delightfully exciting romantic comedy full of blockbuster stunts and action. Needless to say, 87North’s latest project had some big shoes to fill! The dynamic fight scenes in Love Hurts are high octane, precise, impressive and include some jaw dropping stunts. Don’t worry—Marvin knows a guy who can patch up the damage!

But the valiant dedication to the film’s action sequences can’t save it from the obvious lack of chemistry between its two leads. For a movie about love and romance, there isn’t a single spark between Quan and Debose for audiences to cling to or root for. Though both give solid performances despite their clunky dialogue, it’s evident the pair have little chemistry on screen and oftentimes seem more like old friends than old lovers. Though Quan is exceptional in playing a dorky eccentric, it doesn’t feel quite believable when we flash back to him as a merciless assassin. This contributes to the greater issue at hand, which is that the movie plays like it isn’t quite sure what it wants to be. The tone feels discombobulated, playing at times like a kid’s film with R-rated blood and gore. It bludgeons audiences over the head with exposition instead of trusting its Academy Award winning leads to communicate their emotions without a needless voiceover playing through every other scene.

The movie leans heavily into its plucky comedy, serving up some rambunctious scenarios where our main character finds himself fighting off various assailants under hilarious circumstances. One stand out sequence is when a pair of assassins show up to one of Gable’s real estate showings, putting a hilariously docile couple in the center of the madness. For the rest of its runtime, the film feels rather dull, predictable and lacks the swooping romance we found in The Fall Guy between Colt (Gosling) and Jody (Blunt).