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Win ‘Push’ & ‘Knowing’ on Blu-ray – Winners!

Vic Holtreman — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:58:55 +0000

Here are the two winners of our giveaway:

Debbie Egurrola - Coral Gables, FL
Dan Scaglione – Haverhill, MA

Thanks to everyone who entered!

Lucky for you, as Screen Rant gets more popular we get more goodies to give away to you. This time we have copies of Knowing and Push to hand out in awesome Blu-ray format. Both of these movies were OK, and I know a lot of folks actually enjoyed them quite a bit, so here’s your chance to own them both.

Here’s the official description of Knowing:

In 1958, as part of the dedication ceremony for a new elementary school, a group of students is asked to draw pictures to be stored in a time capsule. But one of the students, a mysterious girl who seems to hear whispered voices, fills her sheet of paper with rows of apparently random numbers instead.

Fast forward 50 years to the present: A new generation of students examines the contents of the time capsule and the girl’s cryptic message ends up in the hands of young Caleb Myles. But it is Caleb’s father, professor Ted Myles (Nicolas Cage), who makes the startling discovery that the encoded message predicts with pinpoint accuracy the dates, death tolls and coordinates of every major disaster of the past 50 years. As Ted further unravels the document’s secrets, he realizes it foretells three additional events-the last of which hints at destruction on a global scale and seems to somehow involve Ted and his son.

When Ted’s attempts to alert the authorities fall on deaf ears, he takes it upon himself to try to prevent more destruction from taking place.

This gripping supernatural thriller charts one man’s faltering steps towards belief in the ultimate order of the universe even as he finds himself surrounded by mounting chaos. With the reluctant help of Diana Whelan (Rose Byrne) and Abby, the daughter and granddaughter of the now-deceased author of the cryptic prophecies, Ted’s increasingly desperate efforts take him on a heart-pounding race against time until he finds himself facing the ultimate disaster-and the ultimate sacrifice.

And the special features:

Director commentary
Featurette: “Visions of the Apocalypse”
Featurette: “The Making of a Futuristic Thriller”

Here’s the official description of Push:

A riveting action-thriller, Push burrows deep into the deadly world of psychic espionage where artificially enhanced paranormal operatives have the ability to move objects with their minds, see the future, create new realities and kill without ever touching their victims. Against this setting, a young man and a teenage girl take on a clandestine agency in a race against time that will determine the future of civilization. The Division, a shadowy government agency, is genetically transforming citizens into an army of psychic warriors-and brutally disposing of those unwilling to participate. Nick Gant (Chris Evans), a second-generation telekinetic or “mover,” has been in hiding since the Division murdered his father more than a decade earlier. He has found sanctuary in densely populated Hong Kong-the last safe place on earth for fugitive psychics like him-but only if he can keep his gift a secret.

Push special features:

Deleted scenes with director commentary
Featurette: “The Science Behind the Fiction”
Director and cast commentary

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Push Review

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:00:58 +0000

Short version: Push has an interesting premise, but it just doesn’t manage to translate it into a great movie.

Screen Rant reviews Push

I really thought I was going to enjoy Push more than I did. But much like the God-awful Jumper, Push has an interesting premise that it just can’t translate into a great movie.

Just like Jumper, Push has an extensive backstory… While the former film established it via an in-depth document sent out to movie sites cataloging the history of the good guys and the bad guys, this film did it with a comic book mini-series. Having read four of the issues (which I found pretty intriguing) I had hoped that I would find the film more meaningful through understanding the deep background of “Division.”

Sadly, that didn’t turn out to be the case.

In the opening credits Dakota Fanning (who plays Cassie Holmes) gives exposition via a voiceover to bring the audience up to speed. “Division” is an extension of a program created by the Nazis – an attempt to create a super-powered army. They employ people with a variety of powers, each group with a cute name. We have “movers” who can move objects telekinetically, “sniffers” who can trace the history of an object and where it’s been (more on that later), and “bleeders” who can scream at a frequency that causes destruction and internal injuries.

Push opens 10 years ago with a 12 year old boy being rushed down a hall by his father – it seems they are being chased and dad gives his son a cryptic message that he must remember no matter what. It’s a prediction far in the future, and young Nick (Colin Ford) must promise to help the girl who gives him a flower some time in the future – no matter what.

A number of men who look like SWAT team members show up soon thereafter and after the father makes sure Nick gets away, he is killed. Nick gets a glimpse of Henry Carver (Djimon Hounsou) and will of course never forget his face.

Cut to today, and Nick (now played by Chris Evans) is living in Hong Kong, trying to stay below the radar. Because of this he hasn’t practiced using his powers he’s not very good at it and doesn’t have much control. He’s in debt to gamblers and even trying to use his powers he isn’t able to “fix” gambling games well enough to make himself win.

In a perplexing plot point, it seems that people who possess all these amazing abilities (including a number of which I haven’t mentioned) aren’t formidable enough as is, and Division has been trying to develop a drug for decades that will enhance a person’s natural meta-abilities. Problem is every attempt at a formula has been fatal. Ah, but that is until the beginning of the film where they inject Kira Hudson (Camilla Belle) with the latest version. She dies momentarily but then comes back stronger than ever and manages to escape the facility.

Cassie is a “watcher,” someone with the ability to see the future, and she finds Nick and tells him they have to find a mysterious case that Division is looking for in order to save her mother. He is hesitant at first, but that goes away when yes, she gives him a flower.

The problem is not only does Division want the contents of this case, but so does a Hong Kong gang which has its own watcher plus a couple of bleeders. We meet a variety of characters as Nick and Cassie meet up with Kira, who has had her memory “wiped” so that watchers won’t be able to figure out what she’s doing. Considering the whole “low profile” thing I found it funny how many others with abilities that Nick knew and went to for help.

Now this may all sound pretty cool but the film felt like it went on forever… It felt far longer than its 111 running time and most of the time I just felt indifferent about it. Besides that there’s a lot wrong with this movie – big plot holes, an incredibly convoluted and utterly ridiculous way to get around being tracked by the watchers and execute the “big plan” at the end and a pretty big dangling plot issue that was never resolved.

Part of getting around being tracked by opposing watchers was for Nick to come up with this big elaborate plan where he assigned different people different tasks and sealed those in envelopes so they wouldn’t know what they were supposed to do until just before they had to do it. Looking back from the end of the film, it was ridiculous how he was able to plan this out, even with Cassie’s help – and it took him two hours to get to the mind-wipe guy. It was demonstrated earlier that the Hong Kong watcher could “see” what you were doing/planning instantaneously, so it made no sense that despite his precautions his plans couldn’t be discerned.

And then my favorite dumb thing in the movie was the “sniffers.” It was hysterical watching one guy sniff around Nick’s apartment like a dog, looking for something that would clue him into where Nick had been. And then to make it worse, it seems that if a sniffer takes say, your toothbrush – he’ll not only be able to figure out where you’ve been but also where you’re going to be in the future!

Now I can buy into the whole getting the history of an object schtick (even though sniffing it seems really silly), but once you remove that object from the person it belongs to, how the heck is it supposed to tell you where the person is going AFTER you take it away from them?

Another thing that bothered me throughout the movie is that frankly, they made Dakota Fanning look like a pre-teen hooker in this film. Yes, I expected her to look raggedy since she seems to live on the streets, but that uber short skirt/shorts she wore and a couple of scenes that really seemed salacious from the camera angle left me squirming in my seat a bit from feeling uncomfortable. There is also the formulaic “two s-bombs and one f-bomb” that you can get away with in a PG-13 movie.

Overall I’ll say that I would recommend you pick up the first season of Heroes on DVD and sit through that rather than spending the time or money to go watch Push. Save this one for a rental.

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Three New Spots For ‘Push’

Rob Keyes — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:14:03 +0000

Summit Entertainment provided Coming Soon with two TV spots and a scene from the upcoming movie, Push. The longer video, a two-and-a-half minute action scene from the film, extends and ties together many of the shots we saw the from the trailers for the movie and it looks great.

While I like what I’m seeing enough to see it, my big worry is that there aren’t many other cool action sequences in the film that they haven’t shown us and that would be highly disappointing (that’s what happened with Iron Man). The plot feels like some weak story arc from Heroes, but the action sequences sell me and I hope there’s enough of that to make the movie a good overall experience.

Check out the videos and see what you think:

Telekinetic Gun Fight HD

Push TV Spot – Secret HD

Push TV Spot Push Back HD

I like Chris Evans and Djimon Hounsou and I hope this movie does well, but I don’t like the other actors shown in the trailer especially Dakota Fanning and her character. All of her dialogue and scenes from the trailers come off as pure cheese to me so I hope she’s a better character in the full feature.

I’m loving the bullet blocking scenes between Evans and that blonde-haired henchman, I hope there’s more of that than what’s shown in the promotional materials.

In other news, two weeks back I wrote about the new Push flash-website which detailed the powers and characters of the movie as well as some tidbits of story and history to go along with each character. That site was an exclusive to SuperHeroHype.com.

Now, the official website (Push-TheMovie.com) has been updated and it features a pile of information for the film (and is equally as flash-intensive).

Click the image to check out the official site for the movie.

So what do you think: Will Push be a kick-ass action movie or Heroes warmed-over?

Push hits theaters February 6, 2009.

Source: Coming Soon

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The Powers Of ‘Push’

Rob Keyes — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:10:50 +0000

Today we have a sweet little flash webpage courtesy of Superherohype.com which lists and details all of the powers of the upcoming Push action film.

It’s pretty cool as it details plenty of information about new powers that were not shown in the trailer and it gets me a little more excited to see this movie. You can see it by clicking on the link a bit further down the page.

You’ll notice that the very first power listed in the top left is that of pusher which when clicked, shows and describes the power of that lady from the trailer which the plot of the movie seems to revolve around. The site reveals the name of that character to be Kira Hudson.

I’m guessing the title of the film relates directly to that specific power and character. The website describes a “pusher” as one who can essentially control the thoughts and memories of others. The character Kira they describe seems to be the Professor X of this movie with incredible power. However, unlike Professor X of the Marvel Universe, she is the result of lab experiments and not solely a genetic mutation. The “good” and “bad” guys want to use her for their purposes.

Each power corresponds with a character of the film, most of which we have seen in the official Push trailer and most of the powers seem to be psychic in nature. Pusher is listed twice as Djimon Hounsou’s character also possesses that ability.

Click on the image to check out the powers:

You'll see some interesting tidbits of backstory relating to Chris Evans’ character and the others. And if you have a few minutes, I highly recommend re-watching the trailer. I’m really digging the action sequences in the second half of it.

Their are plenty of obvious similarities to Heroes – and not just from the powers but from the story of this secret organization. On its own Push looks to be a fun action movie that I’ll definitely see in theatres.

What do you think of the world and powers we’re being presented with in Push?

Push hits theaters February 6 2009 and stars Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle and Djimon Hounsou.

Source: Superhero Hype!

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New ‘Push’ Poster

Ross Miller — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 16:20:05 +0000

A new poster has been released for the new sci-fi/action-thriller film Push. The film stars Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle and Djimon Hounsou. Check out the poster below (click for larger view):

In case any of you don’t know what the film is about here is the synopsis and the trailer:

“The action packed sci-fi thriller involves a group of young American ex-pats with telekinetic and clairvoyant abilities, 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.”

[See post to watch Flash video]

This looks pretty similar to the TV show Heroes. People with special abilities trying to evade an organization which is after them. The first season of the TV series anyway is partly about that very same thing so to me this is practically theft. But who knows perhaps it’s just the advertising that’s playing it up that way and the end product will be completely different, I certainly hope so.

The director is the Scottish Paul MaGuigan (who, by the way, comes from the town right next to me) who’s last film was the under-appreciated Lucky Number Slevin). It was clear from that film that he has some talent for creating a stylish and visually interesting film, I hope this is carried on to Push.

This poster, however, does nothing for me. Just looks sort of bland and “meh.” What do you make of the poster and the film in general? Looking forward to it or would you rather pop in season 1 of Heroes instead?

Push opens on February 9, 2009.

Sources: /Film and ComingSoon.net

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New Push Trailer = Heroes: The Movie

Vic Holtreman — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:01:59 +0000

We haven’t heard anything about the upcoming superhero-type movie Push since Comic-Con. Last July they previewed Push the movie and it looked pretty cool. This week a new trailer was unveiled and I don’t want to influence you, but I think it looks pretty damned cool.

With all he debate raging regarding whether this season’s Heroes is good or not, I’ll be curious to hear what your thoughts are on this trailer. To me it looks like they took a pretty similar concept and turned it into a feature film.

It stars Dakota Fanning, Chris Evans (who played the Human Torch in Fantastic Four), Camilla Belle, and Djimon Hounsou.

Check it out for yourself:

[See post to watch Flash video]

For higher-res versions head over to Apple.com.

I’d provide a link to the official site for the movie, but they don’t even have a “coming soon” page for it – right now it’s Godaddy.com page: Fail.

Push opens on February 9, 2009.

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Comic-Con ‘08: Summit Panel – Push

Vic Holtreman — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 20:56:48 +0000

Chris Evans, Camille Belle, Djimon Hounsou and director Paul McGuigan are on hand to promote the movie Push. The film is about people with psychic abilities and how governments around the world attempt to train and use them for warfare and spying.

The showed the opening title sequence of the film which takes a very real world approach showing archival footage going back to WWII and the 1950s.

Director McGuigan wanted this to seem like something real as far as the situation, even if the abilities are paranormal. The characters aren’t super-powered but are regular people who happen to have these abilities. Some people can push memories on others (Pushers), others are “Movers” who have telekinetic powers. Then there are “Watchers” who can see the future. Dakota Fanning plays a watcher in the film but was not at the panel due to getting stuck in traffic.

A clip was shown featuring Hounsou which indicated this is a pretty serious looking film as far as tone, and then an extended scene with Chris Evans and Fanning was shown where they were cornered by a bunch of other psychic bad guys.

This is the first I’ve heard of this film but it actually looked pretty good – don’t know why I haven’t seen anything about this yet. It looks well acted and has some powerhouse actors in it (no, I don’t mean Chris Evans).

Chris Evans said his character is a Pusher who has turned his back on his powers for the most part, except for personal gain.

They talked about all the different types of psychics in the film.

Hounsou talked about real psychics that he has met (yeah, I know…).

McGuigan was attracted to the script because it has intrigue and sci-fi. He believes it’s unique and fun (didn’t look “fun” to me) and the Hong Kong background is a character in itself.

Push opens February 2009.

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