While a couple of family films, a few edge-of-your-seaters and some much anticipated indies are hitting theaters this weekend, expect all eyes and most of the money to be on Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio in Ridley Scott’s political thriller Body of Lies.

In the latest Warner Bros. release, DiCaprio plays Roger Ferris, a high-ranking CIA operativesent to Jordan to track a particularly wily terrorist. Crowe is Ed Hoffman, hissuperior, who calling the shots from back home while watching Roger’s every move on spy satellites. The technology and accuracy of what they can see fromthe air really is amazing, and apparently, that technology actually exists. Although the topic of Middle Eastern terrorists is not a popular one, the superstar duo is expected to attract millions of eager viewers to the Cineplex this weekend, regardless of its R-rating.

Universal’s family sports drama The Express is actually opening in about 2,700 theaters this weekend,almost two hundred more than than Body of Lies. Also known as The Ernie Davis story, the film follows the inspirational life of college football hero Ernie Davis (Rob Brown), the first African-American to win the Heisman Trophy. But his dreams of pursuing a career in the NFL as a member of the Cleveland Browns came to an abrupt end when he was tragically struck down by leukemia and died in 1963 at the age of 23. Rated PG, producers are hoping entire families will be watching.

But it’s Fox Walden’s City of Ember that might capture more family attention, since it’s based on the popular children’s novel of the same name by Jeanne Duprau. Saoirse Ronan, the young actor who was nominated for an Academy Award last year for Atonement, plays Lina Mayfleet, who lives,along with the rest of earth’s remaining population, underground in a threadbare city called Ember. The Builders, who were trying to save mankind from extinction, placed them there 200 years ago, along with a giant generator to power the city and a magical box that would free them from their subterranean confines and lead them to the earth’s surface when it would likely be safe to live there again, in 200 years. Alas, the box has been misplaced, the generator is about to go, and the city is run by a corrupt mayor played by Bill Murray. Lina, her young friend Doon (Harry Treadaway) and his crazyinventor father (Tim Robbins) seem to be the best hope for getting out of Ember before it crumbles to dust, even though it’s believed that outside of the city there is “only darkness.” It’s rated PG as well.

RocknRolla is also seeing its first weekend in American theaters having opened on Wednesday. Guy Ritchie’s latest fast paced drugs, sex,violence and rock and roll film involves a complicated real estate scam in London, in which millions of pounds are up for grabs, luring in the likes of a corrupt business man (Tom Wilkinson) a couple of sundry toughs (Idris Elba and Gerard Butler), a crooked accountant (Thandie Newton) and a crack addicted rock star (Tob Kebbell). Of course their paths are all violently intertwined. It received a hard R rating, even though much of the cussing could slip right past you due to strong Cockney accents.

Quarantine is hitting theaters as well this weekend—it’s one of those low budget horror films with a mostly unknown cast that generally cleans up at the box office. A remake of a Spanish film this version is set in Los Angeles, where the government sealed off an apartment complex and the residents were never seen again. “No details. No witnesses. No evidence. Until now.” It’s been described as a “Cloverfield Witch Project,” and is obviously rated R.

The most buzzed about indies to it theaters in limited release this weekend include Mike Leigh’s comedy Happy-Go-Lucky about an unflappably optimistic British school teacher played by Sally Hawkins, and Wong Kar Wei’s re-imagining of his own martial arts classic, Ashes of Time Redux. While audiences could well find them a little esoteric, don’t be surprised if you hear a lot more about them come Oscar time.