Release Date:
Friday, February 6, 2009
Directed by: Paul McGuigan
The Skinny: Since WWII, the U.S. government has been employing a secret unit called "The Division" to capture and experiment on people with psychic powers. When a mysterious woman (Camilla Belle) escapes, it's up to a reluctant telekinetic (Chris Evans) and a teen who can see the future (Dakota Fanning) to figure out W.T.F. is going on.
The Good: Despite being loaded with so many details that "The Skinny" only skims the surface of the movie's plot and character elements, Push doesn't get too bogged down and delivers a pretty solid sci-fi action flick. Director McGuigan has decided to go grainy rather than overly slick, which makes everything feel fresher—plus, he's layered in enough humor to keep the story from getting too far up its own ass. There are enough twists and turns to make the exposition go down easier, and the characters are all generally likeable or suitably hissable (Djimon Hounsou plays his first, but not last, real villain). The chemistry between Fanning and Evans (who really is an underrated actor) is particularly good.
The Bad: The more you prod the twists and turns, the more cracks begin to show, but none of it is so egregrious that it ruins the fun. One scene kind of suffers for McGuigan's insistance on keeping CGI to a minimum (having Hounsou try and be intimidating while a gun hanging from fishing wire floats near his head evokes chuckles, not tension), but the rest of the movie is a welcome return to actual stunts and real on-set explosions. Again, this isn't a groundbreaking film, but it does its job.
Fan Out: We'll just gloss over the fact that Fanning seems to be avoiding the "awkward years" pretty successfully (cough) and say that this kid shouldn't let her chops keep her from doing more action/comedy. She's got a way with a mid-action one-liner. Who knew?
Theater, DVD, or TNT in Five Years? This is a fun night at the theater, and it's a nice change of pace to see a superpowered sci-fi action movie centered on "real" people and not costumed heroes with code names.
The Skinny: Since WWII, the U.S. government has been employing a secret unit called "The Division" to capture and experiment on people with psychic powers. When a mysterious woman (Camilla Belle) escapes, it's up to a reluctant telekinetic (Chris Evans) and a teen who can see the future (Dakota Fanning) to figure out W.T.F. is going on.
The Good: Despite being loaded with so many details that "The Skinny" only skims the surface of the movie's plot and character elements, Push doesn't get too bogged down and delivers a pretty solid sci-fi action flick. Director McGuigan has decided to go grainy rather than overly slick, which makes everything feel fresher—plus, he's layered in enough humor to keep the story from getting too far up its own ass. There are enough twists and turns to make the exposition go down easier, and the characters are all generally likeable or suitably hissable (Djimon Hounsou plays his first, but not last, real villain). The chemistry between Fanning and Evans (who really is an underrated actor) is particularly good.
The Bad: The more you prod the twists and turns, the more cracks begin to show, but none of it is so egregrious that it ruins the fun. One scene kind of suffers for McGuigan's insistance on keeping CGI to a minimum (having Hounsou try and be intimidating while a gun hanging from fishing wire floats near his head evokes chuckles, not tension), but the rest of the movie is a welcome return to actual stunts and real on-set explosions. Again, this isn't a groundbreaking film, but it does its job.
Fan Out: We'll just gloss over the fact that Fanning seems to be avoiding the "awkward years" pretty successfully (cough) and say that this kid shouldn't let her chops keep her from doing more action/comedy. She's got a way with a mid-action one-liner. Who knew?
Theater, DVD, or TNT in Five Years? This is a fun night at the theater, and it's a nice change of pace to see a superpowered sci-fi action movie centered on "real" people and not costumed heroes with code names.