Push (2009)

Beautiful, moving film.

As Good As It Gets

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Don't listen to the salty critics. The story is not in-depth enough but the movie is highly entertaining and original and is really something else.

If you haven't seen "Push", I strongly recommend it. If your a fan of genre films, you'll get a lot of pleasant surprises seeing acters playing very different roles than what you're possibly familiar with. The story is very much science fiction with a good balance of action, plot and character development. There's flaws but nothing so major to ruin the experience. Production values are actually good because the money saved filming in Hong Kong (which is done as integral part of the story) went to a large cast of good acters, believable special effects and a decent if not memorable soundtrack. It doesn't deserver the rating it has on IMDB, which comes mostly from people who don't understand the plot. Why do so many people don't understand the plot? I don't know. It's not the most complicated I've seen. There's some holes but most things are explained either through dialog, flashbacks or visual cues. Perhaps the biggest "flaw" is the movie doesn't spoon-feed it's plot to the audience in tiny amounts with lots of repetition and "Oh hey let's repeat everythin 5 times so the audience can figure it out". For the *serious* nerd, comic-book fan or SF fan you'll find a lot of familiar plot elements. You need to watch *and* listen. And you need to keep names straight. But hey, there's another really compelling reason to see this movie now. Seeing "Push" for the second time, I realized it's something rather unusual... A reverse ensemble film. while it's now nearly a decade old, the movie frankly still holds-up well in terms of effects with nothing to really significantly date it. Perhaps "Push" didn't get as good a rating on IMDB as it could because of how many ratings occur when a movie is first released. After all, Chris Evans in 2009 was known for having played Johnny Storm in the first two mediocre Fantastic Four flicks. It was two years before he became The First Avenger. Yet even though "Push" isn't a super-hero flick, it's all-about the super-powered. It's a genre film with a very high cross-over to the Marvel universe. Take Ming-na Wen who plays a small role of an enhanced person, someone who can touch an object and tell who held it, where they are, and what they've been doing. You may know her better as Agent May in the "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." series on ABC which didn't start until 2012(?). Then there's the sinister glasses-wearing bad guy Harvey Carver, played by Djimon Honsou who you see as the second speaking character in "Guardians of the Galaxy". He's the angry dude who doesn't recognize Starlord or even Starlord's name. Man, poor Starlord... But hey, it's not just the Marvel Cinemeting Universe that gets a represent. Cliff Curtis of Fear the Walking Dead pops-up as an enhanced. And Corey Stoll, the alcoholic CDC employee turned vampire hunter in "The Strain" plays an agent out to catch our protagonists. The amount of genre acters and characters is getting a little lopsided now but thankfully there's Maggie Siff, the bad-ass Dr. Tara Knowles from "Sons of Anarchy" in a small role as, well, let's not give too much away... But now that's *six* acters in "Push" who went on to become famous for roles they started shortly after this movie. Which poses an interesting question: What would have happened if there'd been a sequel? I'm trying to not have any spoilers in this review, but the movie ends in such a way that a sequel, or spin-off TV series, might have been possible. But once Chris Evans became Captain America that was all over. But maybe somewhere out there on an Alternate Earth, Chris Evans is famous as the Pusher Nick Grant, fighting against the tyranical efforts of The Division.

nothing unexpected. or surprising. or memorable. good acting, nice script, action and a formal story. old/classic war between Good and Bad , the love, friendship, super powers and secrets, adventure and noble moral values, mysterious meets and predictable end. far to be a great film, using many/too many clichés, it is a nice film, part of popular trend, work of interesting actors and wise for the use of fascination about secrets/thirst of conspiracies as basic tool. so,one of films about well known themes in a new/ at the first sigh/ package. so, entertainment. or contemporary version of fairy tale. and , more important, a decent film who gives nothing more than you expect from it.

I will be honest, this movie is not really a 7. I consider giving a 5/10 to represent an actually okay movie (in contrast to many other voters on IMDb). And that is what this movie is. Okay action, okay story, okay actors and characters, okay soundtrack, the list goes on. Nothing was noteworthy bad or god really – Just inoffensively sort of average. There are some plot contrivances but not more than in most movies of similar genre. What for me lifts this movie far above the average though is the premise that I found fascinating.The whole mythos of the different mental powers, the categorization and how they work both internally and work off each other was very intriguing. It is such a shame that this great world building is wasted on such a mediocre movie but if you enjoy intricate and stimulating systems, this movie is a great jump of point for your own thoughts and ideas and a fun source of inspiration.