Whether in a novel, a movie, a play, a musical, a song, etc., there are two common themes when it comes to love. The first, and more desirable theme, is finding love and living happily ever after. The second is finding love and losing it, whether it be from a nasty breakup, a death, or even unrequited love. Regardless of how that love is lost, we can all probably agree, it hurts. Well, for mild-mannered real estate agent Marvin Gable (Ke Huy Quan; Everything Everywhere All at Once), "love hurts" takes on a whole different meaning when his former life comes back to haunt him. Love Hurts is out now on 4K, Blu-ray, and Digital.
Marvin is a very successful real estate agent and one of the sweetest guys you will ever want to meet, going so far as to bake cookies for the office. As his day begins, Marvin is very precise in all that he does, including putting ingredients in the crock pot to cook for dinner. However, when a note arrives for him simply saying, "Love Hurts" and "I'm Back..." his world is turned upside down. You see, Marvin wasn't always so nice and sweet. In fact, Marvin was the top hit man in his brother's crime organization, but left several years ago. However, this mysterious note pulls him back into that nasty underworld of crime once again.
It is great to see Quan have this resurgence in his career as an adult, having survived being a child actor back in the mid-80s, and the fault of this film's lack of success doesn't lie with him. The script is your "by the numbers", generic action film, and it doesn't deviate from that formula. The jokes aren't funny and fall flat 95% of the time. The rest of the cast is either not good or forgettable, so Quan really has nobody to play off of to elevate his or anyone else's performance. And perhaps the most egregious mistake is casting Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) as his partner/love interest. This is her second bad performance, after Kraven the Hunter, and she and Quan have absolutely no chemistry at all-even if they were only playing good friends instead of love interests (did nobody do a screen test with these two?!?).
What is very well done is the 2160p video resolution with a 2.00:1 aspect ratio. While the Dolby Vision tends to cause some scenes to be less bright than others, it still offers a deep and rich color saturation overall. Details are in sharp focus, proving an overall good transfer.
The Dolby Atmos audio is equally as sharp and, in some ways, even better than the video quality. The eclectic soundtrack gets a boost from the layered audio and the stunt work-both the gunshots and fight choreography-bounce off the surround speakers, filling the room from all sides.
The 4K collector's edition includes both the 4K and Blu-ray Discs, as well as the digital download. The extras are a little thin and generally don't need more than one watching. They include: Alternate Ending, Deleted & Extended Scenes (Lovers in the Park, Dog Poop, Last Client, Dead Roses, Knuckles and Merlo, Kippy's Teeth, Otis and King, and Raven and Ash), The Ke to Gable, The Heart of Love Hurts, and Stunts Hurt.
Love Hurts, coming from the producers who gave us Violent Night, is a letdown on so many different levels that it can sometimes be painful to watch. Even with Quan as the beacon of light in this 83-minute movie, he can't save it from itself. The audio and video quality are top-notch, but the movie itself leaves much to be desired.
Grade: C
