In 2008, Evans appeared as Detective Paul Diskant in the thriller "Street Kings", with co-stars Keanu Reeves, Forest Whitaker, and Hugh Laurie. He was then cast in "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond", co-starring Bryce Dallas Howard and Ellen Burstyn. It is a romantic drama based on Tennessee Williams' 1957 screenplay. The feature received negative reviews, and "The Village Voice" critic called Evans' performance "catatonic". The following year he appeared in the science fiction thriller "Push", with Dakota Fanning and Camilla Belle. The film follows a group of people born with various superhuman abilities who unite to take down a secret agency that is genetically transforming normal citizens into an army of super soldiers. Principal photography was held in Hong Kong, where Evans suffered bruises from doing his own fight scenes. The film's response was generally negative; Claudia Puig of "USA Today" described it as "silly" and "convoluted", while Mick LaSelle of "San Francisco Chronicle" criticized the story which "makes no sense", and predicted that Evans, "one of these days he's going to make a good movie".