New York Times
"Imaginatively filmed by Peter Sova, PUSH has a dizzying, chaotic energy that pulls you along." 02/06/2009Washington Post
"[T]he execution is fresh, earnest and inoffensive. It's a gussied-up knockoff of a Scorsese mob movie, shellacked with an opaque sheen of Clancy-style espionage, stir-fried with a bit of Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez and the Wachowski brothers." 02/06/2009 Total Film
3 stars out of 5 -- "PUSH explodes into action....It's an ambitious, original effort..." 04/01/2009 ReelViews 8 of 10
An original concept that isn't directly based on any comic books or graphic novels, Push nevertheless feels like an adaptation and concept similarities between the movie and the TV series Heroes are hard to miss. Push is clearly designed to be the first chapter of a multi-part saga but, unlike last year's Jumper, it hedges its bets enough so that if there are no future installments, at least there's a degree of closure...The film is blessed with a frenetic pace that simultaneously accomplishes two things: it keeps the energy level high while obfuscating some of the most obvious logical flaws in the plot's structure. These come to light when the movie is examined in retrospect but are not a major detriment to the average viewer's enjoyment as the story unfolds. Director Paul McGuigan and screenwriter David Bourla have crafted the film in such a way that the characters' arcs are not linear. I was never certain exactly what was going to happen next, and that factor allowed Push to hold my interest...For Chris Evans, this is not his first venture into the superhero genre, although Nick Grant is a more interesting and sympathetic character than Johnny Storm (a.k.a. The Human Torch). With Cassie, Dakota Fanning continues to transition from child roles to adult ones, and impresses with both her range and maturity; here, she toys with firearms and gets drunk. This may fundamentally be Nick's story, but Cassie is the sparkplug...The strength of Push is its relentlessness. The movie doesn't pause for anything and, when it provides exposition, it does so without bringing the action to a grinding halt. The movie has an ambitious backstory and one senses that, if there is a Push 2, there will be no difficulty finding new avenues to explore. In fact, the movie is almost too short. Given another 15-20 minutes, there are subjects that could have been expanded and ideas that could have been better mined. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 5 of 10
"Push" has vibrant cinematography and decent acting, but I'm blasted if I know what it's about. Oh, I understand how the characters are paranormals, and how they're living in a present that was changed in the past, among enemies who are trying to change the future. I know they can read minds and use telekinesis to move things. I know they're a later generation of a Nazi experiment gone wrong, and the U.S. Army wants them for super-soldiers...But that's all simply the usual horsefeathers to set up the situation. What are they doing? The answer to that involves a MacGuffin that would have Hitchcock harrumphing and telling Alma, "Oh, dear, they really have allowed themselves to get carried away." The MacGuffin is a briefcase. Yes, like in "Pulp Fiction," but this time we know what's in it. It's a drug or serum that kills paranormals. And the Division desperately wants it...I'm not sure if the Division is part of the Army or against it. I know that the telekinetic Nick (Chris Evans) is hiding from it in Hong Kong, and that the Pusher Cassie (Dakota Fanning) finds him there and brings along the briefcase (I think), and that she's followed there by most of the other characters, including Kira (Camilla Belle) and the Division agent Henry (Djimon Hounsou), who is another Pusher. Pushing involves not drugs but Pushing into other people's minds...Dakota Fanning's Cassie claims at one point that she's "older than 12," but I dunno. Her mother would probably not have allowed her to fly off to Hong Kong alone, wearing a miniskirt and sporting a hairstyle with purple streaks, but her mother has been killed, which is part of her problem. She does get a little drunk, which provides the movie's only laugh. Dakota's real mother probably told her, "Dakota, honey, why don't you take the role, and get to see Hong Kong?" If that's what happened, she has the best reason of anybody for being in this movie. - Roger Ebert
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