PUSH DVD Review - Mania.com



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  • DVD: Push
  • Rating: PG-13
  • Starring: Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle
  • Written By: David Bourla
  • Directed By: Paul McGuigan
  • Distributor: Summit Home Entertainment
  • Original Year of Release: 2009
  • Extras: Commentary, Featurette
  • Series:

PUSH DVD Review

Frenetic Superhuman Film has its Moments

By Tim Janson     July 09, 2009


Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning in PUSH(2009).
© Summit Entertainment

 

“Push” is a Sci-Fi/Superhuman film about people born with various psychic abilities.  These manifest in a number of different ways:  Pushers can influence the minds of others; Movers can move objects with their minds; Watchers have a clairvoyant ability to see the future; Sniffers can pickup a person’s scent off items which are decades old and track them; Bleeders can emit an ear-wrenching scream the can shatter objects and ear drums; and Shadows can effectively block the abilities of others, such as Watchers and Sniffers within a small proximity and render people he’s close to effectively invisible…A brief prolog shows a little boy whose father is killed by agents from something known as “Division” led by Henry Carver.
 
Years later the boy, Nick Grant (Chris Evans), is now grown up and living in Hong Kong , using his mover ability to gamble at dice.  He meets Cassie (Dakota Fanning), a 13-year old Watcher who wants Nick’s help to find a case worth millions.  Meanwhile agents from Division are pursuing the case and a Nick’s old girlfriend, Kira, a Pusher, who was the first person to survive a Division experiment which can augment a psychic’s powers.  She promptly escaped along with a case containing the drug.  Nick is now trying to protect Kira from Division as well as an opposition group of Hong Kong Psychics, including a pair of Bleeder brothers who want the case for their own uses.
 
“Push” has so many things going on in it that it’s easy to get lost, rather than immersed in the storyline.  As Watchers can see into the future they are always one step ahead of our fleeing group of heroes.  Nick’s plan is to constantly forget what their plans are, using a Wiper to erase their short-term memories and then re-group.  It’s all a tad to frenetic and the film barely has time to catch its breath from one chase to the next.  That’s a good thing because with the exception of Cassie, they get zero character development.  How did they all end up in Hong Kong ?  What exactly is Division?  Were they all born with their powers?  Presumably but anything would be little more than an assumption.  Chris Evans is a likable lead although he’s not terribly charismatic which serves him in his reluctant hero’s role here.  Dakota Fanning was enjoyable as an “old” 13 year old, seemingly worn down by life and her troubling future.
 
On the plus side, the powers and the special effects used to display them, particularly the ability of the movers is well done.  In particular there is Nick’s battle with a rival Division Mover inside a restaurant that is one of the film’s true highlights.  There’s obvious influence from comic books here, notably the X-Men and certainly a bit borrowed from TV’s “Heroes” as well.  It’s a superhero film without the fluff and without spandex.  Not great, but a fun bit of diversion and worthy of a sequel.  I
 
Extras
 
Audio commentary featuring the Director along with Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning.
 
The Science behind the Fiction (9:15) is a featurette about psychic powers and real life experimentation by the Nazis during WWII and the Russians throughout the Cold War, as well as U.S. experimentation as well.

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COMMENTS AND RESPONSES

Showing items 1 - 7 of 7
1 
ddiaz28 7/9/2009 6:26:08 AM

I was definitely waiting for this one on DVD and it sounds like it's worth a watch.  I'll check it out.

Wiseguy 7/9/2009 9:45:41 AM

I was drawing comparisons more to Scanners, Firestarter and The Fury.

Agree with the grade. The cast was perfect IMO. I was hoping for a little more to be honest, maybe it's like you said, the lack of character development. But the material was there. Too bad it didn't do that great at the b.o. I would like a part 2

almostunbiased 7/10/2009 9:48:30 AM

I've had this in my que at Netflix for months.  When it finally became available suddenly it said short wait.  I was surprised since I put it in que when it was still in theaters.  But ok.  Now it says Long wait.  That's BS.  Netflix can suck donkey balls.

They sent me Outlander instead.  Not as bad as I thought it would be.  It reminds me of 13th warrior in a way.  So if you liked that you might like this.

silversurfer 7/10/2009 12:50:35 PM

I find it interesting that Wal Mart is packaging this movie and Knowing as a combo DVD? 

doublec 7/10/2009 5:43:56 PM

They're made by the same company, Summit Entertainment, which is the same company that made that vampire movie last year that got a little attention. They make a good double feature, with Push being the "B" half. The price for the 2-disc package is $29.96, which I think is a good deal.

dragon261 7/13/2009 12:16:57 PM

I thought it sucked with bland charcters and dialog with a unsatisfying ending. It was only marginally better than a Syfy channel offering.

hanso 7/14/2009 4:18:05 AM

Nah, Knowing sucked, this one was better.

Definitely a rental though. 

Sequel will deal with the mom I presume?

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