THE MOVIE

Chris Evans and Dakota Fanning in Push (2009).

A couple of months ago I received tickets in the mail to see Push at the cinemas. I had seen the adverts, and the movie looked interesting so off my wife and I went to spend a few hours in the cinemas. While Push is not the greatest movie ever made, it was a fairly impressive movie visually wit some entertaining moments. When the Blu-Ray disc turned up it was one I was keen to fire up and have another look at the film to see if it would grow on me. Adding to the excitement was the knowledge that Icon Films generally have very impressive looking and sounding discs. But anyway, let's get into the review...

Push tells the story of a group of young American ex-pats with telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities are hiding from a clandestine U.S. government agency. They must utilize their different talents and band together for a final job enabling them to escape the agency forever.

The bleeders are pretty bad-assed...

Feeling like a mixture of Heroes and The X-Files this movie seems to mix up a whole heap of ideas which is also its downfall. At times it feels like the movie jumps around a little too much with characters coming and going without good reason - particularly towards the end after the letters have been written. For a movie with a budget of only $US38 million we were pretty impressed with the visual effects and action sequences in the movie; the confrontation in the Chinese Restaurant and the fight at the end of the movie both manage to impress.

In terms of acting I actually really enjoyed Dakota Fanning (War of the Worlds) in Push. Now that she's growing up and in her teens she seems to be taking on more mature, edgy, role which is quite evident. Indeed there is a great scene when she comes back to the apartment drunk - hilarious. She also has plenty of edgy, funny one-liners which are perfectly delivered. Chris Evans (Fantastic Four) is solid although we have to admit a somewhat plain - if I can use that terms. Finally Camilla Belle (10,000 BC) is great as the very hot, but essential, Kira while Djimon Hounsou (Gladiator) is great, but somewhat underutilized as the evil Henry Carver.

Cassie Holmes (Fanning) can draw the future.

Push is not a total disaster. In fact there are many parts we very much enjoy watching. With a tighter script and better direction this really could have been something special, and we do hope that there is a sequel somewhere down the line. If you like action movies then we'd suggest you have a look at this movie. Great; no. Entertaining; I say yes.

VIDEO
One of the reasons I love receiving Blu-Rays from Icon Films is that generally they offer very impressive transfers and that, we are pleased to report, is the case with Push as well. Encoded using the AVC MPEG-4 codec at the films original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 this 1080p video looks very impressive indeed. Filmed around the streets of Hong Kong there are plenty of colours by day while at night time the film is filled with neon signs and lights. With a bitrate that constantly hovers above 30Mbps this transfer really is quite gorgeous.

There were only a couple of very minor issues to note. On a couple of scenes the grain levels seem to jump up a little bit (and we're not talking about the intentionally grainy and distorted flashbacks before you ask) while in a few other scenes the colours seemed a little washed out. Still these issues are few and far between and don't drag the entire presentation down.

She's hot, and can see the future!.

AUDIO
Push comes to Blu-Ray with a single audio track, that being a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (24-bit/48Khz) and it's an impressive effort. Be it the high pitch squeals from the Bleeders, or the cracking gunfire, the high pitched female voice of Dakota Fanning or the deep bass from the punches in the climatic fight everything here sounds wonderful. There is good use of directional sound and sub woofer. Indeed finding faults with audio on Blu-Rays is becoming increasingly difficult as the movie studios provided these brilliant lossless mixes.

There is only a single subtitle track on this disc - English SDH - which was accurate to the dialogue on-screen with clear text. Subtitles are also provided for the audio commentary.

How is Nick controlling that gun?!

EXTRAS
Upon starting this disc, and after the legal jargon you will be presented with unskippable trailers for Fame (2:26/HD) and The Box (2:01/HD). Both of these come with nice DTS-HD MA5.1 audio mixes and neither is available from the Special Features menu. Anyway onto the other extras...

Audio Commentary with Director Paul McGuigan,, and Actors Dakota Fanning and Chris Evans: Only accessible through the Setup Menu (why isn't this in the Special Features?) this is a fairly lighthearted commentary with all three participants bouncing off each other for the duration of the track.

Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary from Paul McGuigan (3:13/HD): Four deleted scenes are presented here and they are fairly good although quite brief. Audio and visual presentation is solid. The scenes include "Cassie Buys Alcohol", "Stowe and Popgirl on Phone", "Cassie Hides from Stowe" and "Stowe Killed by Popgirl".

Push is out now on Blu-Ray.

The Science Behind The Fiction (9:17/HD): This featurette focuses on an interview with an ex-Army person, Colonel John B. Alexander, who discusses the real investigations, and what has actually been demonstrated in real-life. It makes you wonder ho

OVERALL
Despite the somewhat confused plotline and disjoined story Push is an entertaining sci-fi movie with some great characters and moments. The transfer to Blu-Ray is impressive while the lack of extras disappoints somewhat. Still, it's worth a look.

Review By: Dave Warner

THE MOVIE	7/10
THE VIDEO	9/10
THE AUDIO	10/10
THE EXTRAS	4/10
OVERALL	7/10