Short Round grew up. Although, TBH, I don’t think his mass increased much while doing so. He’s clearly middle-aged and prepared for drama, but -hear me out- I think this guy is prepared to stand in as interim Jackie Chan until the next Jackie Chan can be found. And I offer as proof, Love Hurts, a funky action-comedy about a hitman forced to admit his redemption arc has a few lumps in it.
Marvin Gable (Ke Huy Quan) is a top-notch real estate agent. He has an award to prove it. He even has an assistant. I don’t know any real estate agent with an assistant. We’ll give the movie a pass here because Ashley (Lio Tipton) is definitely her own person. It is Valentine’s Day, and -out of the blue- Marvin has received a valentine from Rose (Ariana DeBose), a woman who represented the turning point in his life when he refused to kill her.
Rose is supposed to be dead and she’s announced the fact that she isn’t to all the people who were supposed to make her dead … and now all of them are after Marvin and Rose. There’s your premise. Many hitmen. One good guy who used to be a dangerous hitman; one woman “on the run” who behaves like she’s in control of all of it.
The writers and director of this film obviously like enforcers. The first one that attacks Marvin reads self-composed poetry. A hitman who writes poetry is a wonderful innovation. And, yet, this guy may not even rank among the top-5 bruisers in Love Hurts. These guys also got a pretty good stunt coordinator. The use of props while battling hand-to-hand put me in the mind of Jackie Chan – and it doesn’t hurt at all that Ke Huy Quan is a middle-aged, slight-of-build, mild-mannered Chinese guy with some quality
kung fu skillz.
In a film like this, I expect the screenplay to hide Marvin’s martial arts abilities until it is impossible not to display them. That didn’t quite happen here, but such is a minor quibble.
Love Hurts is propelled by the actions of a character who spends a lot of time not-on-screen, requiring the film itself to be propelled by mild Marvin and his surprising talents. Can Ke Huy Quan carry a film? Well, he can certainly carry a film like this. I don’t think he has Jackie Chan’s natural charm, and he probably isn’t a martial artist the way Chan is, but most of us take for granted the skill levels because most of us are not black belts. In other words, I think there’s a cavity in the genre of martial art comedy and Ke Huy Quan could be the guy to fill that cavity. The imdb returns may not say so, but I think there’s something there. In any case, let’s see more of Short Round; he was away from us for far too long.
There was once a feared hitter called Marv
A new career he endeavored to carve
Yet one day his past
Caught up at last
Now he’s as anonymous as Brett Favre
Rated R, 83 Minutes
Director: Jonathan Eusebio
Writer: Matthew Murray, Josh Stoddard, Luke Passmore
Genre: Games nobody wants to play
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Fans of Jackie Chan film
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who don’t have a soft spot for hitmen, maybe?
