Often, when you combine two genres, you get two weak ones instead of getting one super genre. Will Jonathan Eusebio’s comedy/action/thriller Love Hurts succeed where others have fallen?
Marvin Gable (Ke Huy Quan) is a successful real estate agent thriving under the tutelage of his business mentor Cliff Cussick (Sean Astin). While celebrating his most recent sale, Marvin receives a Valentine’s Day from a colleague from his former life as an assassin, Rose Carlisle (Ariana DeBose). Rose has returned, despite Marvin having been supposed to eliminate her long ago.
Rose’s target is Marvin’s mob leader brother, Knuckles (Daniel Wu). Realizing Rose is alive, Knuckles sends knife/dart expert The Raven (Mustafa Shakir) to torture Marvin at work to find the location of Rose. Activating his assassin fighting skills, Marvin subdues The Raven. But that isn’t enough. While at a house showing, Knuckles sends two more brutes, King (Marshawn Lynch) and Renny (Cam Gigandet), to finish the job.
So no. Love Hurts is neither a good action film nor a rom-com, while trying desperately to be both. The entire film is themed around Valentine’s Day. Most of our heroes and villains are involved in some complicated love story or angle. Marvin and Rose supposedly had feelings for one another the day he was to kill her. The film attempts to build toward this romance, but since it’s also a mob crime thriller, the love stories feel forced, expecting the audience to simply accept them.
“Marvin receives a Valentine’s Day from a colleague from his former life as an assassin, Rose Carlisle.”
As a mob crime thriller, it’s the standard tale of embezzlement, skimming, and a hapless accountant, Kippy (Rhys Darby), who is tortured and abused for comedic effect. Because the film also attempts to be a love story, the mob plots and subplots are underdeveloped and feel rushed—almost as if the filmmakers assume we’ve seen enough mob films to fill in the gaps. Also, because this is a comedy, all of the film’s characters and performances feel comedic, which means nothing in the story or performances can be taken seriously.
Director Jonathan Eusebio is best known as a stuntman. The fights in Love Hurt are the best thing about the movie. Good use of hand-to-hand combat, knives, guns, and tasers. The action is bloody and brutal…in a comedic way, but fun nonetheless. Because the film is weighed down by weak love and mob storylines, there’s simply not enough action to make it worthwhile.
My final personal take. If your hero and villain are Asian, I expect Asian elements through the film. That Asian element is Knuckles’ obsession with boba and that’s it. I mean, their last names are “Gable” for crying out loud. The other Asian delivers boba throughout the film. Knuckles’ henchmen are a mix of Black and White characters. It all just feels Hollywood when I suppose, there was an Asian influence in this tale.
Love Hurts is a prime example of what happens when a film spreads itself too thin trying to juggle multiple genres—it drops all the balls. Ultimately, it’s a forgettable attempt at blending action and romance, proving once again that genre mashups rarely deliver a knockout.
"…Genre mashups rarely deliver a knockout."
