“Love Hurts,” but watching this movie hurts even more.

This would-be action comedy is heavy on the action sequences, but fails miserably everywhere else – wasting a cast that, like the target audience, deserves a whole lot better than this.

In “Love Hurts” Ke Huy Quan plays a real estate agent named Marvin Gable. Marvin is living in Milwaukee, a positive personality who strives to be the best agent he can possibly be.

Marvin’s happy life comes crashing down when someone from his past – a lawyer named Rose (Arian DeBose) returns, bringing all the skeletons out of his closet. It turns out that Marvin was once a hit man who worked for his brother, a mob boss named Knuckles (Daniel Wu). Marvin left that life after being asked to by Rose. She was part of a plot to steal money from Knuckles, but Marvin is secretly in love with her so he let her go.

After initially going on the run, Rose has returned to get her revenge and to help Marvin rediscover his true self.

“Love Hurts” clocks in at a brisk 83 minutes, but it still feels both under-cooked and over-stuffed.

The audience is thrown into the action and these characters so quickly it almost feels like the first act was left on the cutting room floor. You have two talented Academy Award winning leads in Quan and DeBose, who are given characters that are never fully developed, just given vague caricature outlines.

The screenplay, credited to three writers, struggles to find the right tone, trying to mix wacky comedy with lots and lots of bloodshed.

First time director Jonathan Eusebio, who has served as fight coordinator for a slew of films including “Black Panther,” “John Wick” and “300” can certainly stage a fight. It’s the moments between the kicks and the bullets flying where Eusebio’s direction struggles to find any rhythm.

There are a couple of fleeting moments outside the action. Having “Goonies” co-star Sean Astin play Marvin’s new mentor is inspired casting that I wish would have been explored more. Former NFL star Marshawn Lynch continues to make the leap to the big screen, following up his wonderful turn in “Bottoms” with another fun performance as a bumbling hit man tracking Marvin.

Lio Tipton and Mustafa Shakir also have a few good moments in a subplot involving Marvin’s assistant and another hit man tracking Marvin, but like almost everything else in this movie it is never allowed to reach its full potential.

And there lies the problem with “Love Hurts,” a film that has so many promising pieces but they are all jumbled together to create one big mess of a movie.

If You Go
“Love Hurts”
Starring: Ke Huy Quan, Ariana DeBose
Directed by: Jonathan Eusebio
Rating: R for strong/bloody violence and language throughout
Playing at: Regal Bowling Green Stadium 12, Regal Greenwood Mall Stadium 10, Highland Cinemas (Glasgow)
Grade: D+