As Good As It Gets

Absolutely brilliant

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

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.

Evans fits well with his character and his chemistry with Fanning is charming. Both do a great job in keeping the film grounded and though there are supernatural elements to this, it feels very real and rugged. The rest of the cast too were good, though some lines feel like they were delivered quite monotonously. I really would have loved it if they had more of Ming-Na Wen though. She plays Emily, and appears in a few scenes then absolutely disappears in the ending.The setting and the cultural input also really helped to bring some colour to the film. It also made it easier to have a kind of Mafia and guns going on thing since the Chinese are typically used as gangsters in films. Now that I think about it, the stereotypical roles in this regarding race is so very typical and horrible. Evans, Fanning and Belle who are all white, are also the good guys. Division is run by a black person, and the other group going against them are the Chinese gangsters. Wow.On to other things, the visual effects were well done and kept to a minimal which made it more realistic. The cinematography, editing and directing was all well done and came together quite well.The story was pretty intricate but not hard to follow and I really liked it. It seems unfair to end it the way it did, and I am expecting a sequel but seeing as there still isn't any, I'm a bit disappointed. This film does seem to be underrated and apart from the stereotypic racial roles, I quite like this film.Read more movie reviews at: championangels.wordpress.com

I just watched this movie and I really don't and can't understand what all the hating is about... this movie is awesome! The cast was great, the cinematography AWESOME, and the directing fabulous. The story premise, though not 100% original, the script of this movie was. Fresh and different and much better written then all the super-hero movies out there now. I really love this movie... is there a Push 2????? It made money... what's the problem (That is why critics really suck because they can give such a bad name to something so good.) I read a view different comments for critics, all giving the film a bad name, explaining how it was not original nor good... how wrong are they. I extremely recommend this movie... much then what is being made now.

People with psychic powers (known as either movers, wipers, stitchers, pushers, watchers, bleeders, shadows, shifters or sniffers, depending on their particular talent) are press-ganged into working for The Division, a shady government agency that wants to boost their abilities and use them as weapons.Push is one of those films that is nowhere near as clever or as original as those involved obviously believe it to be; the basic concept offers plenty of scope, but the whole thing collapses like a house of cards thanks to a poorly thought out script full of inconsistencies, contrivances and plot-holes. Director Paul McGuigan employs all manner of unnecessary visual trickery in an attempt to be edgy/stylish, but only succeeds in making his film bloody irritating.If I was a pusher, I'd plant a thought in everyone's mind to never bother watching this film; on the other hand, if I was a watcher, I would've known how crap it was beforehand and could have saved myself some time.