Hooray for Plane Wi-Fi.
I just finished watching Love Hurts. The action-comedy movie really banking its hype with Ke Huy Quan in the starring role, the adorably charming action-movie Oscar winner.
And oh my dear god I feel so bad for him, this was not a good movie. 
3 or 4/10 for me.
There are glimmers of light in this darkness, but oh jeez, the script was terrible. The characters clichéd. The acting was poorly directed at times though I don’t think it was really the actors’ fault. The Valentine’s Day theming of the movie is cute, but feels like it was only there to glam-up what would otherwise be a generic rom-com.
The action scenes are the best parts of the film by far. It’s dynamic, punchy, very bloody and a little acrobatic at times. A treat to watch, though even some these scenes can suffer from feeling choreographed, as the fight editing lingers too long on one or two wind-ups and makes it feel fake.
If the script wasn’t so full of exposition-heavy dialogue “Oh hey boss, yeah you remember that chick who took all our money years ago and now you’re hunting her down, yeah why is that?” 
This could have been a bit longer of a movie and had time to properly set-up and explore these characters deeper.
Just… god…
In terms of side characters not played by the wonderful Quan, I think Mustafa Shakir did a superb job as The Raven. His side-plot where he connects with the real estate agent because of his avant-garde poetry about killing was really sweet, plus he plays tall quiet and menacing really well.
And I will say, there is ONE good scene that I think is perfect in this movie, one single gold nugget that wowed me:
The scene involving Sean Astin’s character Cliff entering Marvin’s house only to find his brother menacingly waiting in there.
Now normally this is where they’d cut to the clichéd “evil gang lord brutally interrogating Cliff to find Marvin, while Cliff is exasperated about learning of this hidden side of Marv” but NO! Not that at all!
They both… have a civil but tense talk.
“Knuckles”, Marv’s brother slowly unravels the truth about Marv and everything he’s hidden from his “normal life”.
Cliff is taken aback a little, but is curious to know more. He wants to empathise with Knuckles about this mutual connection.
Alas, that won’t save him or Marv, and Cliff even knows this. “Now, I’m not naïve to think there’s anything I can say to get me out of this” before he goes on the defense. He says he believes in absolution, second chances, and how good of a man Marv is and how his hard work as a successful realtor is almost like “wanting to atone for something”.
It was a really poignant scene with a completely calm conversation that struck me as so surprising in this movie with wobbly comedy and crazy action. Sean Astin, you amazing treasure, expertly fucking done.
Oh yeah and the movie even tries to be John Wick at the end with the stylised motion-graphic subtitles for the Russian lines near the end of the film, which came out of nowhere. Ok movie. Sure. Sure. Hmm.
It was a great way to waste 80 minutes on this 4-hour flight, but damn I really wish I could say that it wasn’t. 
(I should have watched Zootopia 2 instead FUCK)