I think I might have just found my new favourite Valentine’s Day movie.
Love Hurts is the perfect combination of action, comedy and romance – enough to turn any date night into something special. The film had me hooked from the opening scene, and maybe that’s because I didn’t know what to expect. What I got was a really fun time in theatre.
I’m a sucker for love and I’ll always root for it, but do you know what I love more than love? A good action comedy. I grew up on Jackie Chan movies – Rush Hour is still one of my favourite movies and this movie took me back to those movies.
So let’s get the bad out of the way first. The story isn’t groundbreaking and it is outright predictable. There isn’t much character development, but then again it’s not really a character driven film. The movie is kind of short, and leaves you wanting for more. The action scenes are also a little spaced out.
Now the good… The movie feels like a comedic take on films like Nobody and John Wick, and it works. It doesn’t take itself too seriously and sometimes might feel a little campy (I know not everyone will love that).
The best part of the movie, Ke Huy Quan – he finally gets to lead a movie and he’s brilliant. I don’t know if he choreographed the fight scenes, but it looks awesome. It’s martial arts sprinkled with some slapstick comedy. The fights are a lot of fun and it blends perfectly with the films tone.
The rest of the cast had some fun as well. The film also stars Ariana DeBose, Daniel Wu, Marshawn Lynch, Mustafa Shakir, Lio Tipton, Rhys Darby, André Eriksen, Sean Astin and Cam Gigandet. Apart from Quan, Mustafa Shakir was a real standout for me. I didn’t know he could move like that.
I don’t know much about director, Jonathan Eusebio but I did love his camera work and his style. It really felt like it’s set in the same universe as Nobody. David Leitch is one of the producers, so you’ll never know – we might just see a crossover.
I know not everyone is going to agree with my review of the film, but I loved it. It might not be the best action comedy, but it’s something different to enjoy at the cinema for once. I can easily rewatch it on my next date night.
