Mixing love, violence and humor is always tricky and with “Love Hurts” while there are moments that work, the overall result of director Jonathan Eusebio and writers Matthew Murray (“Learning Wild”), Josh Stoddard (“Warrior” and “Into the Badlands”) and Luke Passmore (“Archenemy”) collaboration which stars Ke Huy Quan is an uneven, messy Valentine’s Day film that won’t satisfy martial arts or comedy fans.

It’s not that Ke Huy Quan is unbelievable as a successful realtor or even a violent hitman, it’s the situations, sometimes clunky exposition and ensemble casting that burden Eusebio’s directorial debut and Quan’s first outing as the lead actor.

The story has Marvin Gable (Quan) living alone, a people-pleaser at work as a successful realtor under Cliff Cussick (Sean Astin) who has just recognized Marvin as “Regional Realtor of the Year.” Marvin bakes pink heart-shaped cookies for his clients and the Valentine’s Day party at work. He also bicycles to work. His picture is featured on many advertisements, particularly on bus stop benches. His competitor Jeff Zaks (Drew Scott of the “Property Brothers”) advertises himself as a martial arts expert.

But someone has been mailing handmade cryptic Valentine’s Day cards and defacing Marvin Gable’s posters with Magic Marker mustaches. As the movie’s poster notes: “You can’t break up with your past.”

In the past, Marvin was a hitman working for his brother Alvin “Knuckles” Gable (Daniel Wu). Marvin was ordered to kill Rose (Ariana DeBose), his brother’s accountant. Rose was involved with cheating Knuckles out of money but Rose is tired of living under the radar. Knuckles comes after both Rose and Marvin, sending in his goons who have questionable allegiances, but ultimately there is a brother-against-brother showdown.

While I think the Oscar-winning Quan, 53,  is adorable, he’s much older than his supposed love interest and the chemistry between Oscar-winning DeBose, 34, and Quan is more fizzle than sizzle. I wish there was more on-screen time between Wu and Quan as well as Quan and Astin. More also could have been made of any sort of rivalry between Scott’s Jeff Zaks and the false bravado that sometimes comes with a black belt. The ultimate baddies, the Russians, are too absent from the screen to feel any sort of looming threat.

Eusebio, who was the fight coordinator for “The Fall Guy,” the stunt coordinator for “Violent Night,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi” and “The Matrix Resurrections,” works with stunt coordinator Can Aydin and cinematographer Bridger Nielson (“Bullet Train” and “The Fall Guy”) for some good fight scenes. I will never look at a boba straw the same way. Yet some of the scenes verge on chaotic, a problem with direction and editing, and the last fight scenes are not as inspired as those at the beginning.

Despite some diversity and geographic issues with the 2022 “Bullet Train,” that film had better pacing and balance between the violence and the humor.  While the casting was questionably diverse in “Bullet Train,” it is somewhat more believable in “Love Hurts,” yet one still wonders where are all the people of East Asian descent in both films.

Indeed, “Love Hurts,” and so does a comedy that doesn’t always get the laughs, even though the headliners are both Oscar-winning actors that I like. Wait until streams online. I do hope that Quan gets better roles in better movies. “Love Hurts” opens nationwide on 7 February 2025.