Shudder Saturday: Push (2024)

I don't know how it happened, but I have now spent two weeks in a row watching films about pregnant women in peril. This time around it's Natalie (Alicia Sanz), a realtor who is at the end of a long day hosting an open house when she is approached by "the client" (Raúl Castillo). Natalie has some tragic backstory, tied to the father of her unborn child (of course), but that gets pushed aside when the film focuses on the horrible scenario of her trying to keep away from someone who seems intent on killing both her and her baby.

Co-written and co-directed by David Charbonier and Justin Douglas Powell, this is the kind of slim premise that needs a whole lot of confidence and style, or maybe even just great tension and/or gore, to make it worth your time. Sadly, it has none of those things. If these film-makers have confidence in their own abilities, it is sorely misplaced. While I wasn't a big fan of one of their previous efforts, The Boy Behind The Door, that at least had a bit more to think about, as well as a bit more visual style. This is a step down. The lean script isn't effective, the tension isn't sustained due to an inability to make viewers believe how credible the threat to our leading lady is, and the whole thing just feels flat in every way.

Sanz and Castillo aren't bad, but they're not given any opportunity to be very good either. They do what is asked of them, which means the former spends a lot of the time acting nervous and afraid while the latter stays menacing and pretty unstoppable. There's one scene that has Castillo blurting out a savage statement of intent in a way that makes you think everything is about to step up a notch, but then it's back to the standard flat level of everything else.

There's some obvious commentary here if you want to read it, but it feels unintentional, a lucky side-effect of the main premise being about a man trying to forcibly end the life of a soon-to-be mother. This could have been improved immensely by, for example, making our villain less of a mystery. Although I am all for films that don't feel the need to explain everything, and killers without obvious motivations or triggers are often the most disturbing, I think this could have been reworked to create a connection between the leads that would have given us even more, or at least a little, substance to chew on.

I feel as if I should try to praise someone, anyone else, here. I can't though. That doesn't mean that they haven't done any good work. It just wasn't good enough to make up for the disappointment of the writing and direction. 

3/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share 

Push (2009)

A decent cast and decent premise are both wasted in this unexciting, muddled, and inevitably inconsequential, superhero movie from writer David Bourla and director Paul McGuigan.

Chris Evans plays Nick Gant, a young man who has the power of telekinesis, even if he is still learning how to use it. His life is thrown into chaos when he's approached by Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning), a young woman who can see into the future. Cassie needs his help catch another person with super-powers (Kira Hudson, played by Camilla Belle) and to set a chain of events in motion that will eventually lead to her rescuing her mother from the government officials keeping her captive. There's a high probability that Chris and Cassie could die, as Cassie keeps pointing out, but she tries to remain hopeful that they can succeed in their quest while avoiding the attention of other talented individuals. Xiaolu Li plays another young woman who can see into the future, although she's better at it than Cassie, and Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou) is an agent determined to retrieve Kira for the benefit of the organisation that he works for.

Sounds like fun? Telekinesis and seeing the future? I've not even mentioned the talent that Kira has for being able to push thoughts, suggestions and false memories into the mind of anyone not mentally prepared to defend against such a sneak attack. Or the guys who can shout/scream so loudly that they can kill people and break glass. Even more fun, right? Wrong.

Push just never delivers, it never rises up to what it could be - an enjoyable adventure featuring folk who never made the cut for X-Men (and don't take that as a highly disparaging remark, I'm a huge fan of Chris Evans and he's the main reason I was able to find this film reasonably enjoyable).

This is mostly due to the poor script and lacklustre direction, but it doesn't help that the majority of the cast, aside from Evans, Fanning and Hounsou, are so forgettable. Camilla Belle is especially disappointing in her role, failing to liven up a character not written all that well in the first place and the least said about those two shouting/screaming guys, the better.

When Bourla plotted out the movie he obviously thought he was being clever and unconventional when he was, in fact, simply being annoying and dull. The plot, twists and turns and all, makes little sense and ends up having no real purpose. It's almost as if the whole thing exists just to set up a sequel that never happened.

The filmmakers may have thought it commendable that they made a movie focused on characters over action, but they forgot to make the characters interesting enough for that approach to work. It's a shame because the potential was there for something much better. This is simply average, at best.

5/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Push-Blu-ray-Chris-Evans/dp/B00206U5XO/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359128027&sr=1-2