Two Movies I'm Keeping My Fingers Crossed On

Each of the next two Fridays features debuts of movies I've been looking forward to for awhile now:

Predators premieres next weekend, and it can't possibly be any worse than its two most immediate predecessors: Predator 2, the awful Danny Glover/Gary Busey trainwreck that featured some of the worst dialogue in the history of movie-making; and Aliens vs Predator 2, which managed to make most of us realize just how relatively enjoyable the first AvP film actually was! With Robert Rodriguez attached as its main producer, and stars like Adrien Brody, Lawrence Fishburne and Topher Grace, I have at least some grounds for hoping this new addition may actually deliver some good thrills. I'd certainly like to see the losing streak that both the Alien and Predator franchises have been on lately come to an end, and with Ridley Scott set to direct the next facehugging feature, that may not be as unlikely as it once was.

Based on his previous work, Christopher Nolan's upcoming release, Inception, automatically piques my interest. It launches in two weeks' time, and features such interesting names as Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Michael Caine, Ken Watanabe and Tom Berenger. Nolan has yet to let me down, spanning two Batman features (both amazing films), a successful "gimmick" picture (Memento) and a fun period/SF flick (The Prestige). I haven't seen Insomnia yet, although we recently purchased it on DVD, meaning that that oversight will be remedied shortly. What little I know about Inception is what I've gleaned from the trailers I've seen. It looks a little Matrix-y but I'm sure there's more to it than that. I also tend to think DiCaprio is probably picky enough by this point in his career that he wouldn't sign up for just any old thing.

It's not very often that I see back-to-back weekends in which theatrical releases might actually drag me out of my shut-in existence for a few hours, but it could be about to happen. Wish me luck!

[Update later that same day: Just watched Insomnia with Vicki, and we both liked it a lot. Quite the psychological thriller, although there weren't a lot of surprises in it. As I said to Vicki, it's probably Nolan's weakest film but that still puts it above 99% of the films that come out.]