Review: 'Love Hurts' is an uneven action rom-com that doesn't get the full use out of Oscar winner and martial-arts expert Ke Huy Quan

I love a good underdog story as much as the next guy, and the career of Ke Huy Quan — from child actor in “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” and “The Goonies” through the wilderness years and back in an Oscar-winning performance in “Everything Everywhere All at Once” — is one of the best Hollywood has ever produced.

So I was hopeful going into Quan’s first movie as a leading man, the action comedy “Love Hurts” — and a bit disappointed coming out, seeing that the star’s full potential wasn’t realized.

Quan plays Marvin Gable, who’s one of the most successful real estate agents in Milwaukee, and certainly the most optimistic. He tells his harried assistant Ashley (Lio Tipton, training to be the next Aubrey Plaza) that she should find something she loves and go for it — like he has with selling houses to young families.

On this Valentine’s Day, something’s off in Marvin’s routine. It starts when he gets a valentine from Rose Carlisle (Ariana DeBose), a woman the world thinks is dead. It gets worse when a big man with many knives, called The Raven (Mustafa Shakir), shows up in Marvin’s office trying to kill him. What’s surprising is that Marvin, for a real estate agent, is remarkably adept at dodging The Raven’s knives and kicks.

Before you can say “didn’t I see this in a Jackie Chan movie?”, longtime stuntman and first-time director Jonathan Eusebio and the three credited screenwriters have revealed that Marvin isn’t just another Milwaukee real estate agent. In an earlier life, Marvin was an assassin, who killed anyone his crime lord brother Alvin, aka Knuckles (Daniel Wu), wanted dead. The last person Knuckles wanted dead was Rose, and Marvin spared her life and told her to hide — just as Marvin did in his new life in real estate.

But Rose is done hiding, and has come back to settle scores — with Knuckles and with Knuckles’ right-hand man Merlo (Cam Gigandet), who’s skimming from Knuckles’ ill-gotten gains. Rose, as a former mob accountant, knows about Merlo’s double-dipping, which is why Merlo wants Rose dead even though Knuckles wants her brought back alive, and has hired two thugs (André Eriksen and former NFL star Marshawn “Beastmode” Lynch) to finish her off. But Marvin, for reasons true to the Valentine’s Day theme, wants to keep Rose alive.

Eusebio and Quan — who worked as a stuntman and martial arts choreographer between acting careers — put together some solid fight sequences. Unfortunately, the fights are a bit truncated, and make action fans long for the sustained craziness of a classic Jackie Chan movie. (As a martial arts fan, I also wish Eusebio had shot Quan in full frame more often, so we could see his moves in full.)

For sporadic bursts, we see that Quan, at 54, has some ferocious moves — and enough charisma to carry a movie as action star and romantic lead. He’s also what keeps “Love Hurts” from being a painful viewing experience.

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‘Love Hurts’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, February 7, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for strong/bloody violence and language throughout. Running time: 83 minutes.