With her independent production company 87north, “John Wick” director David Leitch and producer Kelly McCormick have built up an impressive action smithy. Your halls not only serve to shoot films, instead, stunt people and action choreographers can also use the systems to train, test new ideas or refine the planned scenes. David Harbor has already baptized the facility with a wink “The Church of Pain” (“The Church of Pain”), because it is a specialty of 87north, in the field that has so far been inexperienced like the “Stranger Things” sheriff (for ” Violent night “) or” Better Call Saul “lawyer Bob Odenkirk (for” Nobody “) on the most spectacular as possible Prepare film braces. And this training sometimes hurts really!
But there is not only such a promotion of young people at 87north, but also behind the camera. After all, the boss David Leitch himself succeeded from the stuntman to the choreographer and finally to the director – and he now wants to give others such a chance: now it is Jonathan Eusebio, for example, who is head and choreographer for 25 years as a stuntman and choreographer Collar for more than 80 films and series-including “300”, “Black Panther” and “Obi-Wan Kenobi”-has risked and now with “Love Hurts – love hurts“Delivered his directorial debut. As expected, the result shines with first-class stunt work, but the other elements of the action romantic comedy unfortunately fall off a little in comparison.
In the action scenes it really gets down to business!
On Valentine's Day, broker Marvin Gable (Ke Huy Quan) actually has every reason to be happy. In the office everyone loves the nice boss, who not only inspires with his homemade cookies. And his mentor Cliff Cussik (Sean Astin) will immediately reveal that he was elected broker of the year. But before this happens, an acquaintance from a repressed earlier life flashed out: Marvin, who looks so calm and tender, was once a murdering monster who did the dirty work for his gangster boss brother Knuckles (Daniel Wu). But now this past catches up with him in the form of killer The Raven (Mustafa Shakir).
In addition, the submerged Rose (Ariana Debose) reports with mysterious messages. Marvin was supposed to kill the former right hand of his brother a few years ago, but let it run. Now everyone believes that they know where they are hiding. But not only The Raven is supposed to track down rose, but also the greasy Renny Merlo (cam gigandet) she absolutely wants to get her in his fingers. To do this, he left his henchmen King (Marshawn Lynch) and Otis (André Eriksen) off his leash. To survive, Marvin has to reflect on his old skills. But does he also have to let out the monster at the time, even though he got his new life so much?
Hard tobak: action that hurts!
At least the second half of the film title is absolutely program at “Love Hurts”: it really hurts when Jonathan Eusebio cuts out the action scenes at his directorial debut. It is not quickly cut away, but the full effect of every blow, step or throw is shown. Again and again we see how the figures on the floor, a table or something else. Each impact is staged in such a way that it is quite suitable to create phantom pain in the cinema.
The Ke Huy Quan, which was awarded for “Everything EveryWhere All at Once”, is fully in its element. Because what many do not know: The former children's star from “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Death” is definitely a martial arts and gained a lot of genre experience in the years in which he seemed to disappear from the public. So he turned u. In Hong Kong and was even involved in the Marvel blockbuster “X-Men” as an assistant by the fight choreographer Corey Yuen. To do this, he has the acting talent to combine the rapid fights with a lot of humor. When Marvin meets King and Otis for the first time in his own house, this is an early highlight of “Love Hurts”. Because here action and comedy form such a successful symbiosis as you otherwise know from Jackie Chan.
Marvin (Ke Huy Quan) desperately tries to save his Markler certificate Heil through a spanking orgy.
Eusebio also knows how to use the action choreographies in concrete terms to tell us something about the characters. The fights reveal how torn Marvin is between his two lives. In the beginning he is also the over -friendly broker in the battle, who actually does not want to do anything to anyone and therefore primarily focuses on dodging and blocking. But at the same time, the old monster, which can cause pain in a brutal way, also slumber. The humor almost mingles into this action sause because it is just funny how Marvin clings to his solid average life. As a symbol, he serves the certificate that checks him as a broker of the year – and which he himself tries to preserve from any damage during the most brutal clumping.
In addition, the director, who was supported by the German Stunt coordinator Can Aydin (“Plan B: Scheiß aufplan A”) and whose team, also unexpectedly unexpectedly gained a few dynamic gimmicks. The camera is placed in a refrigerator, for example, so that we can only see excerpts from the fight when the door is being torn open, for example to pop them on the head.
A weaker middle section
After a lively start and two early action highlights, “Love Hurts” in the middle part, however, hangs out powerfully. Despite the actually crisp term of only 83 minutes, some aspects are simply devoted too much space: The rather uninteresting explanations of what actually happened at the time and why everyone was after Rose are not yet too difficult as a necessary story base. The constant cabbage from King with his handlong buddy Otis, who was left by his girlfriend on Valentine's Day, on the other hand, quickly prove to be tiring.
The fact that the poems wrote Killer The Raven in Marvin's job -hate assistant Ashley (Lio Tipton) surprisingly finds a soul mate is also badly overused. And yet The Raven is one of the most interesting characters in the film: his armament alone with sharp sounds on the forearms (a tribute to the Shaw Brothers classic “The cry of the yellow eagle”) he brings a new aspect into the action scenes .
Unfortunately, it doesn't crackle between Marvin (Ke Huy Quan) and Rose (Ariana Debose).
The love aspect is also completely under the central couple: Between Ke Huy Quan and Ariana Debose (Oscar for “West Side Story”), a credible chemistry never develops. The fact that Marvin once threw everything overboard because he was in love with rose in “Love Hurts” remains the mere claim, which is also repeatedly blown up as a annoying Voice over. We can never feel that. This is less due to the two stars than on the script, in which it was missed to create common moments for the couple.
“Love Hurts” joins titles like “Argylle” or “Kraven the Hunter”, in which the talents of “West Side Story” Oscar Prize winner Ariana Debose were also waste to mere keyword roles. There is even more crackling with the heart-warming “The Goonies” reunion of Quan with ex-children's star colleague Sean Astin. The “The Lord of the Rings” hobbit also contributes the best dramatic moment for the action joke.
A furious finale
Only in the grand finale, in which Daniel Wu (“New Police Story”) can demonstrate his skills, does Debose get a few kickass moments. Above all, “Love Hurts” takes the pace again with two long action sequences. This shows that Jonathan Eusebio is definitely a promising action director and Ke Huy Quan has to make more genre films-because every big set piece of the film is different, which always causes variety.
And that also fits the story: The longer Marvin fights, the more he becomes the old monster again – and the more rougher and brutal the actions scenes, which are still broken, become even strange. This is how “Love Hurts” covers a wide range: The comedic beating, which is reminiscent of Jackie Chan, covers references to the Hong Kong Wuxia cinema of the 1970s to brutal opponent revenge in the footsteps of a John Wick in the end .
Conclusion: “Love Hurts – Love Throws Woe” convinces with outstandingly staged action and a well -laid -out KE Huy Quan. While the spectacular fights ensure highlights, the love story remains too pale and the story loses speed in the middle. For fans of uncompromising action, the directorial debut of action specialist Jonathan Eusebio is definitely worth a visit to the cinema.