Push (Blu-ray) (2009)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary Featurette Deleted Scenes
Rating
Year Of Production	2009
Running Time	111:27
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Paul McGuigan
Studio Distributor	Icon Entertainment	Starring	Colin Ford Joel Gretsch Djimon Hounsou Dakota Fanning Robert Tsonos Brandon Rhea
Case	Amaray Variant
RPI	?	Music	Neil Davidge

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.35:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.35:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    In an ambiguous near-future, there are people with super-powers hiding among us. People who have inherited superpowers from ancestors who were the subject of Nazi experiments in the Second World War. Watchers can predict the future. Movers can move objects with telekinesis. Pushers can make others believe whatever they want them to. Bleeders can scream high-pitched sonic tones that cause disorientation and smash things. Stitches can heal folks. Sniffs can sniff objects and get a history of their use and consequently their owners. Wipers can erase memories. Shifters can make objects appear to be something else. Shadows can block the clairvoyant abilities of Watchers and Sniffs.

    "Division" is a secret multi-government backed organisation that hunts down and experiments on the super-beings. Division's main goal is to develop a drug that can allow super-beings to amplify their abilities exponentially. Kira (Camilla Bell), a Pusher, is the first person to ever survive the injection. Moments after doing so she manages to escape and goes on the run from Division, taking the drug with her. Hunted by another powerful pusher (Djimon Hounsou) and his team of Movers and Sniffs, Kira hooks up with a Mover named Nick (Chris Evans), who is looking for answers as to his Mover father's death, and a street-teen Watcher Cassie (Dakota Fanning), who is looking for answers to the disappearance of her mother. Making matters worse, the triads have gotten wind of the formula and have their own operatives on the hunt. The three fugitives turn the streets of Hong Kong upside down as they plot their escape and try to bring Division down.

    Push is a high-concept sci-fi action B-movie that is everything this sort of film should be. The story and concepts are explained well enough to move the story on, but never laboured over. Careful pacing keeps the movie both fun and exciting for the duration, and is helped substantially by the film's exotic locale and great sets. The acting is decent enough.

    The effects are excellent and smartly done in order to make the most of the film's limited budget. Rather than show any restraint in the action, clever camera work and shot-planning has been used to bring this extravaganza to the screen. Plenty of blockbuster directors could learn a few things from the careful blend of CGI and physical effects rather than overdosing everything with bland CGI everywhere.

    Push has the makings of a cult hit and is easy to recommend to action fans.

    Our review of the DVD edition of the film can be found here.

Video

    The film is presented in its original 2.35:1 aspect ratio in 1080p.

    I love the look of Push, particularly its green-tinted, moderately grainy 1970s Fuji film stock use and its careful use of modern jump-cut techniques as well as longer shots. This Blu-ray does an excellent job of maintaining the film's theatrical look. The grain and colours are spot-on. There is excellent depth to the blacks and shadows.

    The film features optional English subtitles for the hearing impaired. Based on the portion I sampled they appear accurate and well timed.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The film features a DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 audio track.

    The track sounds excellent. The dialogue is well placed in the mix and is easy to understand. There are no issues with audio sync.

    Though not as dynamic reference quality audio as some, the surrounds buzz with environmental audio and sound great during the action sequences. The subwoofer gets a thorough workout from the score and action sequences.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    This disc opens with an unskippable anti-piracy advertisement, followed by HD trailers for Fame and The Box which can be fast forwarded but not outright skipped before moving onto a static menu with audio. All the extras featured are in 1080p.

Commentary with Director Paul McGuigan and Actors Chris Evans & Dakota Fanning

    A fairly light-hearted commentary that offers nothing particularly interesting, spending most of its time explaining the obvious, but that makes for reasonable listening thanks to its entertaining tone.

Deleted Scenes (3:07)

    Four reasonably inconsequential deleted scenes with optional commentary from the director. The only one of real note (mainly because the very idea of it is funny) being Dakota Fanning buying booze, just as we'd all expect of a child starlet!

The Science behind the Fiction Featurette (8:58)

    A preposterous advertorial featurette that tries to tell us there is some scientific possibility to the super-powers featured in the film.

    A winner on technical merit for Region B, assuming you want to hear the film in English. We get a DTS HD Master Audio track instead of the standard Dolby Digital present on the Region A edition, although we miss out on a Spanish dub that the Region A edition features.

    An ambitious sci-fi action B-movie that delivers the goods. The film carries its over-complicated concepts well and is a lot of fun to watch.

    Audio and video quality are of a high standard and deliver an accurate representation of the film's theatrical look. The extras are fairly minimal, but worth a look.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall