PushMovie Reviews

Poster art for "Push."

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Avg. Critic Score: 36 out of 100 Generally unfavorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
14 Iffy for 14+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 75
    Philadelphia Inquirer | Steven Rea

    Push has a cool, sinewy style, energy to burn. Read full review

  • 70
    Washington Post |

    As fantastical as all that sounds, the pleasure of Push comes from its glamorized grit, its no-nonsense pacing and the committed performances of the actors roughhousing in the gray area between heroism and villainy. It's pure popcorn, popped fresh, doused in butter and sprinkled with soy sauce. Read full review

  • 60
    The New York Times | Jeannette Catsoulis

    Imaginatively filmed by Peter Sova, Push has a dizzying, chaotic energy that pulls you along. Paul McGuigan directs with maximum efficiency and minimum use of computers, creating effects that feel satisfyingly tangible. Read full review

  • 50
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    A weightless, style-driven thriller set in a photogenically chaotic Hong Kong. Read full review

  • 50
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    A supernatural action thriller, is jangly, jarring and violent. But more disconcerting is watching the sweet-faced Dakota Fanning swear, get drunk and pack heat -- in both fists, no less. Read full review

  • 40
    New York Daily News | Joe Neumaier

    Fanning's watcher is watchable, yet the kid-actress extraordinaire is so polished it kind of makes your head explode. Read full review

  • 38
    Boston Globe | Wesley Morris

    At the very least, a movie like this requires coherence to stay afloat. Barring that, it needs a star to distract us. Read full review

  • 30
    The Hollywood Reporter | Michael Rechtshaffen

    Despite its high-profile cast and a sizable marketing push from distributor Summit Entertainment, audiences won't require any paranormal powers of their own to realize they've seen this one before. Read full review

  • 25
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    Two awful things about Push are at least interesting: The first is the way in which the story is confused. The second is that the story makes no sense. Read full review

  • 11
    Austin Chronicle | Marc Savlov

    I saw the original version of this same story 28 years ago. It was called "Scanners" and it blew my mind for real. Push just blows. Read full review

View more reviews for Push on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says Iffy for 14+ Sci-fi thriller has more style than story; some iffy stuff.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this sci-fi thriller about a group of psychic "supeheroes" stars Dakota Fanning and features lots of special-effects violence. Guns and other weapons are used, people are attacked with blasts of telekinetic force, bloody wounds are shown, and overall, the atmosphere is quite grim. Characters also smoke and drink; alcohol helps Fanning's 13-year-old character "focus her visions." Expect some swearing (including "f--k") and implied sex as well.
  • Families can talk about whether teen drinking seems less serious in a sci-fi setting. How does the movie portray Cassie's use of alcohol? Does it seem realistic? What would the consequences be in real life?
  • Families can also discuss the onoing appeal of superhuman fantasies. Why are they so popular? How does this movie compare to ones like Sky High and Spider-Man?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Government agencies are depicted as venal, power-hungry amoral mobs that use people with special talents as tools to get jobs done. Overall, the movie has a grim tone. The movie's heroes come together out of a sense of self-protection and self-assertion. A 13-year-old character is placed in several adult situations of peril, even brandishing a gun at one point.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Extensive sci-fi action and combat, including bolts of telekinetic force, and hypersonic screams of destruction. Also gun violence, fistfights, and martial arts combat. Several people are impaled with lengths of bamboo; others are hurled to their deaths or shot at point-blank range. Paranormal mind-controllers induce suicides through unbreakable psychic suggestion. Extensive surgical/medical imagery.
  • sex false3 Sex: Kissing; implied sex; some caressing. A scene takes place at a "hostess bar."
  • language false3 Language: Relatively infrequent swearing includes two non-sexual uses of "f--k," as well as "s--t," "goddammit," "hell," "damn," "crap," and "crappy."
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Only a few brands -- Coke, Jack Daniel's -- are shown/mentioned. Due to the Hong Kong setting, many of the corporate logos in the film are unidentifiable or wholly in Chinese.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Characters smoke cigars and cigarettes and drink beer, wine, and hard liquor. A 13-year-old with psychic abilities drinks alcohol to "focus her visions" -- which, in the film's science-fiction world, works, but is also played for laughs.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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