Prior to its release, Ke Huy Quan’s Valentine’s Day action movie, Love Hurts, looked quite promising, but now that the movie is out, it is struggling against shockingly poor reviews. Released in early February 2025, Love Hurts is an action adventure film starring Quan as Marvin, a former hit man turned realtor who gets sucked back into the world of crime when his old partner reaches out after he left her for ᴅᴇᴀᴅ. Aside from Quan, the movie stars big names like Ariana DeBose, Daniel Wu, Sean Astin, and Marshawn Lynch. Currently, the movie has a 19% Rotten Tomatoes score.

Love Hurts’ poor reception is surprising for many reasons. First and foremost, Quan has garnered quite a bit of fame recently following his return to acting in 2022’s Everything Everywhere All At Once. After this success, one would think that his next project would be a success. Furthermore, Love Hurts has an arguably solid premise. Quan gets to bring his action skills to the table, while interesting relationships play out around him. Even the marketing of a Valentine’s Day candy splattered in blood is particularly eye-catching. Yet, it seems that none of this was enough to save the film.

What Love Hurts Does Poorly According To Critics’ Reviews

Love Hurts’ Genre Mashup Explained

For the most part, Love Hurts’ poor critical reviews have to do with the movie trying to do too much at once, and none of it very well. According to critics on Rotten Tomatoes, Love Hurts struggles to maintain an interesting and coherent plot. The movie skips from over-choreographed action sequences to plot points that simply don’t make much sense. On top of that, many were frustrated with the movie’s cinematography, which was hard to make out at times. From the writing to the execution, Love Hurts disappointed critics on just about every level.

One standout issue for Love Hurts was its attempt at merging genres. Although Love Hurts is marketed as an action movie, it also tries to tackle comedy and romance. By no means is a genre mashup impossible to pull off, but Love Hurts is a particularly poor example of one. Many critics felt that the comedic aspects weren’t very funny, and worse, the romance felt out of place and awkward. Even the action felt too mechanical. In this way, Love Hurts tried to tackle several different tropes, and ended up falling short on all of them.

Are There Any Redeemable Aspects To Love Hurts?

What Quan Does Right In Love Hurts

Considering the fact that Love Hurts has a 19% on Rotten Tomatoes, there are very few critics who found something to love about the movie. However, they do exist. The main positive that can be found in Love Hurts’ reviews is the performance of Quan. Although the movie around him comes off as a trainwreck, he is able to bring a level of charm and skill that is still admirable. Additionally, some reviewers were not so harsh on Love Hurts, finding the movie reasonably entertaining, even if it came across as goofy and unserious.

Based on how disliked Love Hurts is, it is impressive that Quan has received such positive feedback. It seems that the actor made the best of a poor situation. In particular, critics were excited by Quan’s action-hero skills, and his ability to bring vulnerability and emotion into his character. Even if the fight scenes felt inauthentic, Quan carried them out with style and gusto. Ultimately, the actor seemed to make the most of an already thin character, which was impossible for some of the other members of Love Hurts’ cast, particularly Ariana DeBose.

Love Hurts’ Audience Score On Rotten Tomatoes Is Better – But Still Mixed

The Biggest Differences Between Love Hurts’ Critic & Audience Reception

Love Hurts may have failed among critics, but its audience score is far better. Viewers gave the movie a 63%. It seems that audiences were just as aware that Love Hurts was not a particularly deep or moving film, yet they still managed to enjoy the movie’s fast-paced elements in a way critics could not. Many were excited by Love Hurts’ action sequences, and were satisfied with the movie’s genre-bending qualities. Once again, Quan got heaps of praise, while the movie’s writing was panned as silly and over-the-top. Reviews were certainly mixed, but not as negative as critics’.

An interesting discrepancy between Love Hurts’ critical and audience reviews was that many audience members wanted the movie to be much longer. While critics occasionally mentioned the movie’s brief 83-minute runtime, many regular viewers were more hung up on the situation, and actively wished that the movie had used more time to expand on its characters. Seemingly, this would have been a good choice for Love Hurts, as one of its main problems was its poorly written characters. However, just like the critics, audiences were left disappointed with the romance and the surface-level plot.

What Love Hurts’ Bad Reviews Mean For Ke Huy Quan

Quan’s Acting Future Explained

Love Hurts’ failure not only hurts the movie, but its actors’ reputations. After Everything Everywhere All At Once, audiences have had high expectations for Quan, and Love Hurts’ bad reviews could impact him. Many may ᴀssume that the 2022 movie was a fluke, and Quan doesn’t have what it takes to be a lead actor. Others may see Love Hurts as the fluke. Notably, Quan is helped by the fact that he seems to be the one bright spot in the 2025 movie. In this way, Quan could fare just fine, despite this difficult failure.

Another benefit for Quan is that he has more movies coming out soon, which can overshadow Love Hurts. In 2025, Quan will star in two new films: The Electric State and Zootopia 2. While Zootopia 2 is almost guaranteed to be a hit, The Electric State has the chance to be a particularly exciting endeavor. With a number of big stars alongside him, this Netflix film could be one of the biggest of the year. Hopefully, it can erase audiences’ disappointment with Love Hurts, and put a new image of Ke Huy Quan in their minds.