Academy Award winner Ke Huy Quan stars in an upcoming Valentine’s Day action comedy, Love Hurts. The film was written by Matthew Murray, Josh Stoddard, and Luke Passmore, and Jonathan Eusebio directed it. Love Hurts follows Marvin Gable, a successful realtor whose violent past as a hitman comes back to haunt him. Is the film worth checking out on the big screen? Let’s dive in.

This Valentine’s Day, Oscar® winner Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Loki) rockets into his first major leading man role as an unlikely hero, a seemingly mild-mannered realtor with a dark secret that he is desperate to leave behind. Spoiler alert: He won’t. The film stars Ke Huy Quan, Ariana DeBose, Daniel Wu, and Marshawn Lynch.

I was rather excited about checking this film out for many reasons. First, Key Huy Quan found that resurgence and starring in a movie post-Oscar win. Second, Marshawn Lynch is back in another comedy role. Lastly, who doesn’t love a good action comedy? The icing on the cake was the hour-and-a-half run time.

Unfortunately, the film falls short on every level. The writing of Marvin Gable felt so undercooked. You are following a man many years past his time as a hitman and slide right back into things without an issue. Gable was a realtor now and moved past that life and hasn’t been precisely studying that craft of kicking ass and taking names. Instead of slowly developing that arc to show him struggling a little to find his ground, he took off running and never looked back.

The comedy wasn’t that great. The best part of the entire movie was having Marshawn Lynch and Andre Eriksen on our screen together. The laughs weren’t here, and how they promote this as a balance of action and comedy falls short repeatedly. Honestly, even when you have moments of good laughs, they aren’t “that” funny.

My MVP of this movie was Ariana DeBose. She hasn’t found her footing since winning her Oscar, but this was the most fun I’ve seen her in film. She was an absolute gem, as Rose brought this sultry, seductive, yet badass nature to the role. I would love to see her in more movies like Love Hurts.

Is Love Hurts worth watching?

This is an easy skip for me. While a high concept, you felt disappointed by an underdeveloped script and underwhelming action sequences. I wanted to love this, and Ariana DeBose and even Key Huy Quan attempted to get the most out of the script, but they couldn’t bring it all together. If you want to check this out, it’s an easy wait till it’s on VOD.

Love Hurts is in theaters now.