Push

(2009) ★★

Syfy: Thursday 10 December, 10.50pm

There are special people in this world: watchers can see the future, movers are telekinetic, and pushers… well, they sell drugs, I guess. Oh no, wait. They put thoughts in your head. There are also shifters, sniffers and bleeders, but probably best not to dwell on them. Anyway, Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning and Camilla Belle are three of these psychic warriors, hiding in Hong Kong and hunted by government bad guys embodied by Djimon Hounsou.

Hyperactive and noisy, this is action from the ADD school of film-making, special needs class. But, dumb and overlong as it most certainly is, Push isn’t actively offensive in the way that Wanted and Jumpers were. And the dependable Cliff Curtis gives it a touch of class. “You’ll need super powers to work out what’s going on,” said the Independent’s former critic, Nicholas Barber.

Alas, director Paul McGuigan’s new film Victor Frankenstein is being received with even less enthusiasm. Possibly the most interesting thing about Push is that it enforced a title change on Lee Daniels’ Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire, which suddenly became Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire after its Sundance premiere.

Certificate: 12
Duration: 111min