Push (2009)

22% of critics liked it
(123 reviews)
47% of users liked it
(1,960,047 ratings)

Lucky Number Slevin director Paul McGuigan takes the helm for this action thriller concerning a group of telekinetic American ex-patriots who band together in an attempt to take down the clandestine government agency that's genetically transforming normal citizens into powerful psychic warriors. The… More Lucky Number Slevin director Paul McGuigan takes the helm for this action thriller concerning a group of telekinetic American ex-patriots who band together in an attempt to take down the clandestine government agency that's genetically transforming normal citizens into powerful psychic warriors. The Division is a shadowy government operation devoted to making humankind the ultimate weapon. Those who accept this transformation have the power to move objects with the mind, see the future before it happens, create new realities, and dispense of their enemies without so much as a single touch; those who are unwilling to participate are immediately terminated. Nick Gant (Chris Evans) is a "mover," a second-generation telekinetic who went into hiding after the Division killed his father more than a decade earlier. He lives a life of anonymity in Hong Kong, a densely populated place where fugitive psychics such as himself are safe as long as they can keep their unique gift secret. Suddenly into Nick's life comes 13-year-old "watcher" Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning), a clairvoyant who needs his help in tracking down escaped "pusher" Kira, who may hold the key to bringing down the Division once and for all. A "pusher" is the most powerful kind of psychic due to his or her ability to influence the actions of others by planting thoughts in their minds. Now, as Nick emerges from hiding in order to help Cassie find Kira, the Division's human bloodhounds are hot on their trail. In order to elude the authorities, they'll need to disappear into the seedy underbelly of the city while relying on a team of rogue psychics to help cover their tracks. But Division Agent Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou) is a powerful pusher who has made it his mission to stop them at all costs, regardless of the collateral damages that may occur in the process. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 51 min.
Directed By: Paul McGuigan
Written By: David Bourla
Genres: Mystery & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy

In Theaters: Feb 6, 2009 Wide
On DVD: Jul 7, 2009
Studio: Summit Entertainment

Critic Reviews

Christopher Orr, New Republic
Belle... is blank as a page, and the intended romantic chemistry between her and Evans is never in evidence.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Push has vibrant cinematography and decent acting, but I'm blasted if I know what it's about.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
There are many problems with Push, and most are the usual boring things: unnecessary plot loops; long, dumb musical interludes; a charmless script; and ostentatious action sequences in which the only person excited is the cameraman.
Claudia Puig, USA Today
A silly movie that is partially engrossing and plenty convoluted.
Kyle Smith, New York Post
A grubby cut-price sci-fi thriller.
Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News
Just as it's getting impossible to tell the superpowered humans without a scorecard, along comes Push to muddy the waters.
Brian Orndorf, BrianOrndorf.com
Push is an empty calorie extravaganza and demands a crooked concentration it doesn't earn to sufficiently piece this mess together.
Sam Bathe, Fan The Fire
Set and filmed on location in bustling Hong Kong, the tight urban street and winding alleyways suit the film perfectly, but this is not enough to save Push from the Oscar season garbage dump.
Nick Rogers, Suite101.com
Light fixtures are the true stars in "Push," constantly reflecting, twinkling and popping. Its best moments are when guns levitate and fire themselves. When you don't even need actors to hold pistols, it's the ultimate in autopilot filmmaking.
Paul Byrnes, Sydney Morning Herald
Push is a chase film dolled up with supernatural powers and chintzy retro design motifs.
Jake Wilson, The Age (Australia)
McGuigan's saving grace is a willingness to slow down and savour his own images. At best, a moody inconsequence takes over and confusion feels like part of the plan.
, Courier Mail (Australia)
The premise is promising all right, but it's a movie over-stuffed with talk and actors with a glazed look as though they too aren't sure of what they're doing.
Anders Wotzke, Moviedex
There isn't a single word in the English language that could justly convey the sheer stupidity, and impenetrable complexity, of Push.
Rhiannon Sawyer, FILMINK (Australia)
The most amazing thing about this by this idiotic sci-fi thriller is that the actors do not crack up when delivering their lines.
Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile
Pushing ideas into other people's minds is what this sci-fi fantasy thriller is all about, and Paul McGuigan's film looks great. The cast is good too. But there's a problem. The story doesn't make sense
Margaret Pomeranz, At the Movies (Australia)
I was at first intrigued, and then bemused and confused.
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion
This entry in the superhero sweepstakes isn't without charm
Chris Kaltenbach, Baltimore Sun
Push has plenty of attitude to go with an overabundance of style, in service to the sort of labyrinthine plot, where nothing is as it seems. That seems impressive as long as you don't think about it too hard.
Kam Williams, Sly Fox
A harrowing mindbender which successfully blends elements of X-Men, The Matrix and Memento while adding some of its own unique sci-fi flava."
Wesley Lovell, Oscar Guy
A pleasant time-waster with non-abysmal performances and a few interesting concepts.

Read all 21 critic reviews

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Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

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Featured Audience Ratings

John M

You know I really didnt hate this movie or really like it. I think my daughter liked it more when she came in and out of the room watching bits and pieces. Overall I was not disappointed since i did not go in with much.
Brad W

Push would've been better if it had just been more interesting and fun. The story was boring and all it was is the director trying to make a big film franchise but it just didn't do it for me. The cast wasn't bad, I enjoyed the villains and Chris Evans and Dakota… More
Push would've been better if it had just been more interesting and fun. The story was boring and all it was is the director trying to make a big film franchise but it just didn't do it for me. The cast wasn't bad, I enjoyed the villains and Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning, no big complaints there. The special effects were pretty cool too, you could tell thats all they cared about though, action and dazzle. Push is a boring but well acted movie with some okay action and cool effects, but the story was just such a failure I cannot give it anything over 2 stars, but if you want a big razzle dazzle action film, be my guest and watch this.
Justin Y

Thanks to its marketing, Push is somewhat of a mislead; however Paul McGuigan offers up enough to make it a watchable motion picture.Pushing its way to roughly 110 minutes, the film treads on by slower than anticipated. This ends up more as a positive… More
Thanks to its marketing, Push is somewhat of a mislead; however Paul McGuigan offers up enough to make it a watchable motion picture.Pushing its way to roughly 110 minutes, the film treads on by slower than anticipated. This ends up more as a positive rather than a negative because the film takes its time to unfold the story, thus adding more meat around a plot which is more simplistic than it sounds. The second half does hold some mystery as things get elaborate.With more emphasis on story the action is held in check, at least when compared to the film as a whole. The pieces that exist, with the potential to be taken further, are satisfying enough thanks to the story's paranormal concept.Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning put on some good performances as the leads. The rest of the supporting cast don't stand out as much, aside from some screaming Asians which, more than anything, come across as weird.Push is far from an excellent movie, but as average to good movies go, this fits in nicely.
Alexander D

PUSH is a confusing sci-fi/action film. Besides that fact, it's hard to watch, overly dull, and quite unintentionally hilarious. A tedious one to watch.
Jens S

The choice of location for this fantastic action adventure is wonderfully unusual. Hongkong makes for a exotic change from the regular US based superhero film. The idea of people with powers being chased and misunderstood is far from new, the ordering them in categories seems kind of… More
The choice of location for this fantastic action adventure is wonderfully unusual. Hongkong makes for a exotic change from the regular US based superhero film. The idea of people with powers being chased and misunderstood is far from new, the ordering them in categories seems kind of off. But the film's atmosphere feels closer to European films like Luc Besson's Transporter movies than the average superhero adventure. That's a nice change. The characters are interesting enough, Dakota Fanning proves that she'll remain excellent even as she leaves her childhood behind. While there isn't all that much action in the first half, the effects of the powers are well done and fun to behold, the showdown is even pretty awesome. More importantly it's also far from dumb. While some dialogs feel a bit arbitrary and the editing is off at times, the movie still entertains and feels fresher than its single parts actually are. Calling it a mix of Lost in Translation and X-Men would go too far, but it's much better than Jumper.
Marc L

This would have been 0% had it not been for Djimon Hounsou, one of my favorite actors. Typical of a Summit Productions movie, this flat out sucked. The acting was horrible, the effects were ridiculous and there were enough plot holes to make a cinematic swiss cheese. Let's… More
This would have been 0% had it not been for Djimon Hounsou, one of my favorite actors. Typical of a Summit Productions movie, this flat out sucked. The acting was horrible, the effects were ridiculous and there were enough plot holes to make a cinematic swiss cheese. Let's start with the only good part of the movie, which the director turned into a bad part. Djimon Hounsou. Playing a villain. Are you insane Paul McGuigan?! Here you have one of the best, most likeable actors, who has never played a villain in his life, playing a villain. Needless to say, he did a good job, but how are we suppoused to root against him? I actually found myself angry when he was killed at the end. But even making Hounsou a villain was not the worst decision the director made. That would be hiring Chris Evans to play the hero. Evans is one of the members in my great pantheon of horrible actors, sharing his throne with the likes of Zac Efron, Channing Tatum, Matthew Broderick and Brian Thompson. (He got lucky with Terminator and Freddy vs Jason) The guy is either horrendously overacting, showing no acting emotion, or trying to be funny and failing. But I guess there's no need to have any good acting qualities when you're playing a shallow and uninteresting character like Nick, a superhuman whose parents were killed and know wants revenge, but needs to control his powers (CLICHE, CLICHE, CLICHE!!!) Cammilla Bell was just as bad. She never showed ANY emotion! She hardly smiled! She had me wanting the whole gang (Yes, Fanning included) to get killed at the end. And then there are the plot holes. At one scene, Nick says "What if nothing we did make sense. Would that throw them off?" That line is unintentionally hillarious. Why? Because nothing they do makes sense! One minute, the main character can barely spin a dice. The next, he is throwing chairs at people. One minute, two characters hate each other. The next, they're making out. Throw in some crappy directing and heinous special affects, and you've got one of the worst superhero films ever. Ick.
Dead A

I did liked the movie but it wasn't well done. Didn't expected much from it though.
Stuart B

Whats the opposite of good? Oh yeah, this movie!
Richard C

B
Robert C

What could have a really cool film, ends up falling short of the mark and feeling more self-indulgent then anything else. The interesting premise, decent cast and really nice visuals are all lost in the substantial plot holes.
Red L

An interesting movie set in the future where everyone has different powers. It is not as flashy as films like X-men with the fancy plane and uniforms. In Push, the characters can have skills include things like those with the ability to predict the future (Watchers), or those with… More
An interesting movie set in the future where everyone has different powers. It is not as flashy as films like X-men with the fancy plane and uniforms. In Push, the characters can have skills include things like those with the ability to predict the future (Watchers), or those with power to make others do whatever they desire (Pushers), or a number of other skills. There is the traditional battle between two sets of bad guys and the good guys.
Jason L

I absolutely loved the actors and the hyper action moments that often appear here. It's very cool at times, but due to it's familiar (and failed) plot, as well as weak writing, Push simply falls flat.
Dean !

A good action film with a popular cast. Not bad SFX, but the story gets a bit weird at times?! It kinda has a X men feel to it with the characters having different special powers, but it isn't as good as those films. It maybe could have done with a few more actions scenes, there… More
A good action film with a popular cast. Not bad SFX, but the story gets a bit weird at times?! It kinda has a X men feel to it with the characters having different special powers, but it isn't as good as those films. It maybe could have done with a few more actions scenes, there is a lot of dialogue and scenes waiting around deciding what to do next. Worth a watch, if nothing special overall.
jay n

Dumb empty actioner.
KJ P

It was good... that's about it! It had a really cool twist at the end!
Dean M

In the premise of this sci-fi-thriller film is crammed into the first five minutes, and the exposition hits me so quickly the rest of the film is spend trying to figure out what's happening. The story doesn't quite make sense, there are some problems with pacing, and some… More
In the premise of this sci-fi-thriller film is crammed into the first five minutes, and the exposition hits me so quickly the rest of the film is spend trying to figure out what's happening. The story doesn't quite make sense, there are some problems with pacing, and some of the villains are straight out of anime. Despite all this, it's a fun time, with enjoyable performances, particularly from Dakota Fanning and Chris Evans, while the telekinetic gun battle bristles with great fx. Wildy ambitious, this blends elements of X-Men, Firestarter, Matrix and Memento.
Nicki M

Really not my type of movie at all. It would be fair to say that had Dakota Fanning not been in it, would not have even given it a go. She does a good job with this, and it's definitely something new for her, but not enough to hold my attention. I liked the colourful Hong Kong… More
Really not my type of movie at all. It would be fair to say that had Dakota Fanning not been in it, would not have even given it a go. She does a good job with this, and it's definitely something new for her, but not enough to hold my attention. I liked the colourful Hong Kong background, but really I had lost the plot (and interest) about twenty minutes into this. Reminded me of The Matrix, kind of, one of those confusing, stupid movies that don't make a whole lot of sense and jump around a lot.
Conner R

A great concept. They didn't feel the need to make the characters with powers too superheroish. It was very much in a real world, which was sort of a nice break from something like Heroes. Chris Evans did a great job and it was nice to see Dakota Fanning not in a kid-like role.… More
A great concept. They didn't feel the need to make the characters with powers too superheroish. It was very much in a real world, which was sort of a nice break from something like Heroes. Chris Evans did a great job and it was nice to see Dakota Fanning not in a kid-like role. The concept is pretty mature for being a superpower-oriented film and wasn't corny like so many of the adaptions have been (spider-man, daredevil, Elektra, Blade).
Dean L

Take an episode of "Heroes" that you didn't think too much of smush it together with the safe and boring movie "Jumper" add in some plot lines that make no sense and mix that with a way of getting to the end that is impossible to follow as there is nothing to… More
Take an episode of "Heroes" that you didn't think too much of smush it together with the safe and boring movie "Jumper" add in some plot lines that make no sense and mix that with a way of getting to the end that is impossible to follow as there is nothing to tie it together and you have..."Push." Much like "Jumper" I had really high hopes for this movie. Great concept (though this one we have seen), decent effects (in this case just barely decent), and a really poor execution. We have telekinetics playing with guns that so obviously look like they are on strings (I kid you not). I thought I was watching marionette mutant mafia in one scene...you'll know which one if you watch this. "Watchers" whose powers are barely defined. "Sniffers" who-well they were kind of cool. They had so many chances to take this movie so much farther and just didn't! This is a bunch of good ideas thrown together and only a few stick. The plot twists were contrived and dumfounding and not in a good way, but the entertainment factor was high when I was not getting too frustrated with the inconsistencies. Check it out if you like, but let;s hope the sequel is better as they seem to be gearing up for one. Almost 3 stars for entertainment factor only.
Lanning :

If you're like me, you probably usually want to have faith in the intelligence of actors, writers, directors, editors -- basically EVERYONE involved in the production of a movie. So like me, you're probably wondering at what point someone -- anyone -- involved in this… More
If you're like me, you probably usually want to have faith in the intelligence of actors, writers, directors, editors -- basically EVERYONE involved in the production of a movie. So like me, you're probably wondering at what point someone -- anyone -- involved in this project might have said, "Oh, oh, this really doesn't make any sense." I mean, SOMEone has to have thought that. I don't want to blame individuals -- the editors, for instance. I'm just hoping that at least one person involved in this from the inception to the premiere said, "Whoa, this is horrible nonsense and is downright embarrassing for everyone involved." Maybe Djimon Honshu -- I hope. I have too much respect for him to believe he couldn't smell this one coming out awfully from early on. This is not a comedy; it's impossible given the total lack of humor evidenced in putting it together. If you're like me, however, you couldn't help but start laughing at the ridiculousness of this one at some point. I don't remember at what point I started laughing, but I felt badly about it, especially since I kept on laughing at things that I know were supposed to be deadly serious. I hate it when that happens, but what else are we to do with this movie, a total mess that takes itself way too seriously?