Al & Santosh Santana

The only thing i want to comment on is that in traditional British spy thriller fashion, there was only 1 firearm shot during the entire film!! Lol. Spy movies made in the US regularly show at least 5 assassins or 20 fights 😅. To top things off, the single fireball explosion in the movie (blown up jeep) was filmed with the camera sound muted. Haha. I enjoyed the movie overall, a thinking person's caper.

Love Hurts was fun to watch. Really i give it 3.5 stars. The lead actor and martial artist is very likeable. Most of the fighting scenes are good or really good-- especially when knifes or other everyday objects were used. With plenty of slapstick fight scenes to go around, the best part of the film was when its comedy parts landed well. Especially the two killers on the loose to get Marvin Gable and his love interest "Rose" (a very easy-on-the-eyes, Ariana Debose) are hilarious. The late romantic confession or one-sided love of Marvin for Rose did not feel believable. Still, i could live with that. However, as a theater-seat critic and watcher of kung fu movies, my pet peeve is that if you're doing comedy, stick with it. Don't switch to gore and graphic killings. For example, in one fight sequence Ke Huy Quan hits a guy holding a blade, on his forearm repeatedly, making the poor bloke stab himself about 10 times in the stomach (no exaggeration) and blood splashing all over the place. Then at the end of that sequence, as if the guy is not already dead, Quan punched the side of his face with full force, reminiscent of Bruce Lee's strike of death with knuckles cracking. A smarter option was for Quan to have gently push him down or simply blow on, as the bad guy slided down the wall. That would have been funny. Directors of action movies have to do better than the diet we are currently fed each time we watch this kind of film.

I liked this horror film, the 2nd time around even better! There are a few jump-in-your seat moments. Depending on how sensitive you are, plenty for sure. It is a thinking person's horror film, made all the more believable by the FBI backstory and Satanic plot. Nicolas Cage's turn is both creepy and otherwordly. He is unrecognizable, and the protagonist Maika Monroe adds veracity and a connection with the audience that makes us imagine how we would react if we were in her shoes. Half way through the film shows down (yet maintaining the suspense and foreboding atmosphere throughout) but picks right up after a while. The use of lighting and cinematography is superb. Oscar worthy for that part alone in my mind, not to mention Cage in his supportive role. Not too soon!