PUSH - movie review, grading, discussion & SPOILERS

[Agent Richard07]

^ Camilla Belle? I think she's plenty attractive. She always gets my attention. They did good casting her.

Yeah, I saw the movie. Decent concept, great cast, and I agree with what you said about Hong Kong, Psion, but the movie was still missing something. And what Kira did at the end seemed like a dumb move. I mean... On a plane?

I didn't know this was supposed to be the first installment in a series. With only $10 million on its opening weekend, I don't see more being made.

[Agent Richard07]

Base_Delta_Zero wrote:

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As for Heroes, eh, that show doesn't have a patent on emerging superhuman abilities, sinister government agencies and characters seeing the future.

Exactly.

[Mr Light]

I just saw PUSH yesterday and I liked it a *LOT* more than I thought I would. It was a solid movie.

It had an interesting and dense story with a lot of twists and turns in a way that reminded me of the original Underworld. The entire plot basically revolved around a complicated issue of precognition, predestination paradox, altered memories and the nature of reality. I actually thought it was very clever. It had I believe NINE different power sets to deal with. The Hong Kong location filming was gorgeous and different from the usual mold. The score and directing were also different and interesting. I thought the acting level was pretty good except for Camilla Belle.

My only complaint is there isn't a lot of powers-on-powers action, but the movie remains fast-paced because they're always on the run and could be discovered any moment. I look forward to a sequel!

Here's one odd thing about the movie; Dakota Fanning is like 13 in this movie but she wears a ridiculously inappropriate short mini-skirt. A really weird choice for the movie...

A question for those who saw the movie: So when a Pusher creates a new memory in you does it stay there permanently? If so that makes that power class WAAAAAY too over-powered. The Shifter's trick only works for like an hour. All they have to do is pass the President in a parade and bam he's your slave for life. It's too much!

[Agent Richard07]

^ I was glad to see Dakota Fanning brake out of her "cute little kid" mold and and take on an edgier role along with everything that it required. She had to play a street kid all alone out there in a dangerous world and she didn't pull any punches.

As for the pusher's power. I don't know. Either it didn't last or people were able to reason away whatever false thoughts were implanted, which is probably the same thing if you think about it.

[Mr Light]

Fanning was great as always in it. She came off as this bitter, cynical and world-weary little tween, not easy. Her getting drunk was also pretty funny. Wow I just thought of something, wasn't she just in a movie where she got raped? Is she really trying to push the envelope or something here? Is she going Miley Cyprus on us?

[Agent Richard07]

Mr Light wrote:

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...wasn't she just in a movie where she got raped?

That's what I heard.

As for her pulling a "Miley Cyrus", I'd say the two are different. Fanning seems to be pushing the limits as an artist, while Cyrus seem to be doing the usual celebrity stuff for fame and attention.

[Daneel]

Mr Light wrote:

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Fanning was great as always in it. She came off as this bitter, cynical and world-weary little tween, not easy. Her getting drunk was also pretty funny. Wow I just thought of something, wasn't she just in a movie where she got raped? Is she really trying to push the envelope or something here? Is she going Miley Cyprus on us?

Yes, her movie Hounddog is the one you're thinking of. It premiered at the '07 Sundance Festival, I think, and got an extremely limited theatrical release last year. From what I've heard, it's just not that good -- it's probably destined to be remembered as "the Dakota Fanning rape movie" more than anything else.

As for Push, I'm still undecided about seeing it, but the box office -- ouch. I'm guessing no sequel potential there. Also, isn't Fanning the voice of the titular character in Coraline, which also opened on Friday? She was essentially competing with herself, which is pretty rare, I think.

[Base_Delta_Zero]

What were the powers?

Pusher - suggestion/domination
Mover - telekinesis
Sniffer - touch/smell post- and pre-cognition
Bleeder - resonance scream
Stitcher - touch healer/wounder
Watcher - clairsentience
Shader - psychic shadow (better versus Sniffer than Watcher)
Shifter - shift matter? (was this a halucination localized on an object or did he actually alter the physical properties of matter?)
...
what else?

[Agent Richard07]

^ I would have thought that the shifter created a temporary illusion for others to see, but then there's the bead he created which looked like it was real.

[Mr Light]

Checking wiki; power number nine is "Wipers can erase memories. They can erase specific events or specific durations of time."

[Psion]

Base_Delta_Zero wrote:

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What were the powers?

Pusher - suggestion/domination
Mover - telekinesis
Sniffer - touch/smell post- and pre-cognition
Bleeder - resonance scream
Stitcher - touch healer/wounder
Watcher - clairsentience
Shader - psychic shadow (better versus Sniffer than Watcher)
Shifter - shift matter? (was this a halucination localized on an object or did he actually alter the physical properties of matter?)
...
what else?

You have most of them, but we need more:
Burners -- pyrokinetics (and similar 'kinetics: zappers, flashers, nukes)
Jumpers -- teleporters
Hivers -- bridges minds (can coordinate other psychics)
Multis -- manifest more than one power
Nulls -- untouched by any power
Readers -- mind-readers and senders
Luckies -- weird luck is always in their favor

[TGTheodore]

What could have been (possibly) a passable flick with an interesting premise was literally destroyed by the direction, photography and editing.

Talk about self-indulgent. Every time the movie almost settled down to normalcy, it would suddenly go into tilted angles, grainy pictures and incredibly bad editing.

Not to mention another attempt at recapturing the "audacity" of a tweener hookerlike character a la Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver. Just freaking creepy undertones, like Natalie Portman in The Professional.

Looked more like a pilot for a CW or Sci-Fi Channel series. And by the ending (or lack thereof) it actually thought there would be a Push 2?

Fat chance.

--Ted

[Pilot Ace]

I saw it tonight with a date. Gave it a C+ for sheer style and potential. I wanted to like it, but ended up kind of shrugging my shoulders at it. We both were iffy about it.

I liked the dodgy direction/editing style. I think it's the most memorable part of the film. I though the introduction design was great.

The skirt/pants thing on Fanning was too, too short and distractingly so. Both my date and I were feeling like creepers during her drunk scene, where she falls onto the chair and nearly gives you a full on crotch shot. It didn't help that she had bruised knees. The female Asian Watcher was also terrible anytime she had to say more than 5 words in a row.

Ultimately, this does feel like half a movie in plot. The world they've created is interesting and the style they present it in is even more compelling. Hong Kong was a brilliant location to choose. But, like others said, the ending is cheap and this was way too much a set-up for a sequel.

I would be willing to see a sequel. But, I would have rather been exposed to an entire film right now than a complete sequel or trilogy later. I'd rather they tone down the Watcher angle a bit though, as that muddied up the action for me.

Anyone know why the protagonist was not pushed into jumping off the rise by the antagonist? We both weren't sure, I was forced to shrug and assume it was something cheap like his love for the Watcher girl.

[Captain Craig]

PUSH didn't last long. In 3 short weeks its out of the top 10.
Its just barely going to do north of $30m.
Looks like their idea of a franchise with this isn't going to pan out.

[Dream]

I saw this movie a few days ago. I thought it was okay. Nothing too memorable. Dakota Fanning was the best part.

The climax could have been much better. I was a little confused at first about why everyone was trying to kill each other for the suitcase.

Captain Craig wrote:

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PUSH didn't last long. In 3 short weeks its out of the top 10.
Its just barely going to do north of $30m.
Looks like their idea of a franchise with this isn't going to pan out.

That's pretty sad for Summit Entertainment when Push is their second biggest movie. Every movie they've released has disappointed at how much they've made except for Twilight. Summit really needs to try releasing some oscar bait dramas or something.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/studio/...ertainment.htm