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Alternate worlds
Based on Alan Moore's (From Hell, V for Vendetta) groundbreaking graphic novel, Watchmen begins in 1985 during Richard Nixon's third term as president as the threat of a nuclear war with the USSR hangs over America. When a former costumed hero called The Comedian (Jeffery Dean Morgan: P.S. I Love You, Supernatural) is killed, the only masked adventurer who refused to retire (Jackie Earle Haley: Semi-Pro, Little Children) suspects that someone is hunting his former teammates. The film unfolds slowly, introducing former heroes like the Night Owl (Patrick Wilson: Passengers, Lakeview Terrace) and Silk Spectre (Malin Ackerman: 27 Dresses, The Heartbreak Kid), in a world where the mystery to be solved shares equal time with masks, normal people, and the strangely godlike Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup: Almost Famous, Dedication), and considers how vigilantes in masks like Batman or indestructible men like Superman would affect the world as we know it. Reckless Video has both the theatrical edition and the extended director's cut, on DVD and Blu Ray.
The other superhero movie this week is Super Capers, where a man with no powers (Justin Whalin: Dungeons & Dragons, Serial Mom) is court-ordered to join a group of superhero misfits, including Felicia Freeze (Danielle Harris: Halloween, Killer Bud), Will Powers (Ryan McPartlin: Chuck), and Herman Brainard (Sam Lloyd: Rising Sun, Flubber). Even when they save the day, they never seem to win... so they have to find and confront the supervillian who's confounding them.
When a little girl (Dakota Fanning: Push, War of the Worlds) in a new home feels bored and neglected in Coraline, she discovers a doorway to another world. A story by Neil Gaiman (Stardust, Mirrormask) directed by Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach), Coraline's new world contains her Other Mother (Terri Hatcher: Resurrecting the Champ, Tomorrow Never Dies), a more attentive and more fun version of her real mother, and a funhouse-mirror version of her world... but if her "real" world was boring and her new world promises her happiness, the strange new world has hints of danger that begin to scare the girl. Both of Coraline's realities have a wide variety of strange characters, including Jennifer Saunders (Absolutely Fabulous, French & Saunders) and Ian McShane (Deadwood, The Golden Compass), and can be seen in either 3D or 2D. On DVD and Blu Ray.
In this reality
John Malkovich (Burn After Reading, Color Me Kubrick) is the titular mentalist in The Great Buck Howard, a fading celebrity who's act draws smaller and smaller crowds as the decades pass. A young writer (Colin Hanks: Untraceable, The House Bunny) is 
working for Howard when the act becomes a success due to an ambitious publicist (Emily Blunt: Dan in Real Life, The Devil Wears Prada), and the writer follows the magician through the strange and unpredictable circus of celebrity and show business.
Boy A tells the story of Andrew Garfield (Lions for Lambs, The Other Boleyn Girl), released from prison after the childhood killing of a young girl. Trying to move past the crimes of his youth, he begins a new life... but when he wants to be honest with the important people in his new world, his rehabilitation worker (Peter Mullan: The Last Legion, Session 9) urges him to leave his past behind.
Reckless Video has two releases featuring Zach Galifianakis (What Happens in Vegas, Below) this week, both a live performance DVD and the film Visioneers (also starring Judy Greer: 27 Dresses, Arrested Development) where people suffering from stress suddenly explode, and when he begins to display symptoms that could lead to his own combustion, he has to question the middle-management corporate life he lives.
New this week to Reckless Video's TV New Releases ore the 7th season of the popular detective show Monk, the 2nd season of This American Life, and the first series of the BBC comedy The Mighty Boosh. We also have the final, 90-minute conclusion to Prison Break, The Final Break, a new animated installment of Wolverine & the X-Men, and the second installment of Robot Chicken's Star Wars sketches, Star Wars Episode 2.