Ke Huy Quan’s return to the big screen is a real gift, especially if you were alive in 1984 & 1985 for his kid double feature. So I hope it’s his choice to follow Everything Everywhere with a basic kung-fu film. Because I’d hate history to repeat itself.

This one stars Quan as an excitable real estate agent who loves nothing more than putting new families into new homes. But he’s got a secret past and soon it’s karate chopping its way into his new life.

This flick feels like a more action packed, less dialog heavy 90s Tarantino clone… only a wannabe clone of those wannabe clones. Maybe due its VERY short length it feels like it’s been sliced and diced of its humanity, banter, character, and backstory. It’s got a ton of characters but most of them are edited down to a handful of cliches. There’s also no real chemistry between characters that would justify an action Valentine’s Day film (especially with the 20 year ago gap).

The action scenes don’t feel right to me. Some of the actors are doing a good job… but others felt less convincing. But the real problem is that the director/editor just didn’t get it right. The way the fights were edited sometimes made me think they were covering for their actors.

Quan is fine but the little we’ve seen of him as a thespian suggests a much nicer guy. Seeing him as a giddy real estate agent works, seeing him as a brutal karate killer doesn’t feel right. He seems like such a huggable dude that I didn’t buy him as a real badass… which is why I’m pretty sure they were try-harding a Jackie Chan movie too.

And I’m sad to say that Ariana DeBose pulls off yet another unconvincing performance after biffing it in Kraven the Hunter. I hope she gets back to what she’s best at.

Which basically means almost nothing works in this film except the high kicks and the punches… and even they are betrayed by bad direction and editing. I’m not giving it a death knell rating because there are some good moments and sometimes the jokes broke through the bad script. Sometimes. Not often.

Score: 72