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Science Fiction
After making a caper film (Lucky Number Slevin), a Hitchcockian thriller (Wicker Park), and a gangster picture (Gangster #1), director Paul McGuigan has made his superhero movie with Push. A little bit Firestarter, a little bit X-Men, the story centered around people with extraordinary powers seeking anonymity in Hong Kong, and hiding from the US government's "Division" who wants to use their abilities as weapons. Chris Evans (Fantastic 4, Cellular) is a down on his luck Mover (telekinetic) whose life takes a new course when a young Watcher (Dakota Fanning: War of the Worlds, The Secret Life of Bees) who's seen his future recruits him to help challenge the Division. Together they seek the key to their future: a powerful Pusher (Camilla Belle: The Ballad of Jack and Rose, 10,000 BC), who can put thoughts into anyone's head, all the while chased by a Division agent (Djimon Housou: Gladiator, Blood Diamond), and navigating the world of Watchers, Stitchers, Sniffs, Pushers, Shadows, Wipers and Bleeders... each with their own powers. On DVD and Blu-Ray.
Alex Proyas' (The Crow, Dark City) Knowing stars Nicolas Cage (Bangkok Dangerous, National Treasure) as a man obsessed with knowing the future. When time capsule is unearthed at his son's school, it provides him with a letter with a string of numbers that seem to be nonsense, but his obsession with the numbers leads him to believe that they predicted every major disaster over the last several decades... though they had been written fifty years ago. Searching for meaning, 
he finds the letter writer's daughter (Rose Byrne: 28 Weeks Later, Wicker Park), and together they try to unravel the numbers' predictions of disasters yet to happen... and the last disaster, which might be the end of the world. On DVD and Blu-Ray.
Odette Yustman (Cloverfield, Transformers) is having strange and haunting dreams in The Unborn, frightened by visions of specters she doesn't recognize. When her father (James Remar: Wild Bill, Pineapple Express) tells her that her twin brother died in the womb, she begins to believe that she is being pursued by a spirit haunting her family for generations, and seeks a rabbi (Gary Oldman: The Dark Knight, Air Force One) to help her with the curse.
A strange man dies on a train with a mysterious box in his lap in Night Train. Tthe conductor (Danny Glover: Silverado, Be Kind Rewind), a salesman (Steve Zahn: Sahara, That Thing You Do), and a medical student (Leelee Sobieski: 88 Minutes, In the Name of the King) discover that the contents of the box could make them all rich. As the three conspire to make the dead man "disappear," they learn that others are looking for this box, which might contain more than just the wealth they all want, and begins to turn them against one another in story that is equal parts Shallow Grave, Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and Hellraiser.
Finally, Reckless Video has picked up the newest release of Mystery Science Theater 3000. The 15th volume of the science fiction comedy that mocks some of the worst movies ever made includes The Robot Vs. The Aztec Mummy, The Girl In Lovers Lane, Racket Girls and Zombie Nightmare (with Adam West and Tia Carrere).
Nonfiction
The History Channel's Life After People is a documentary about the state of the earth if there were no people on the planet... what would become of our buildings, streets, and everyday items if the world were left to the plants and animals.
Brian Regan: Standing Up is the first DVD of the stand-up comedy show of writer/performer Brian Regan, with both the full show and Comedy Central's half-hour spotlight special on the comedian.
Overseas
Done in three segments by three directors, Tokyo! offers surreal film segments about the transformation of a woman who feels invisible (by Michel Gondry: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), a sewer dwelling homeless man who speaks unintelligible gibberish (by Leos Carax: Pola X), and a recluse who only engages the outside world via his telephone (by Bong Joon Ho: The Host).
Several new films and series are new this week from the UK. The award winning December Bride stars Saskia Reeves (The Tesseract, The Butterfly) as a young servant girl who rebelliously seeks to improve her station, beginning an affair with two brothers (Donal McCann: Stealing Beauty, Out of Africa and Ciaran Hinds: There Will Be Blood, Mary Reilly). The most recent version of the bawdy tale from the 1700's, the newest Fanny Hill was written for the screen by the screenwriter for the recent Little Dorrit and Brideshead Revisited, about the young girl who finds her way in a brothel. Another film from a controversial book, Tess of the D'Urbervilles stars Gemma Arterton (Quantum of Solace, Lost in Austen) as a poverty stricken young woman who works to improve her station by claiming kinship with a wealthy family.
Coco Chanel stars Shirley MacLaine (Rumor Has It, Being There) as an elder Coco as she looks back on her rise to fame through her youth in an orphanage to her striking out as an independent and making a name for herself, as well as her comeback in the 50s and her differences in opinion with her business partner (Malcolm McDowell: Doomsday, Tank Girl).