In Theaters Xmas Day: The Great Debaters, AVP-R and a Creepy CGI Sea Monkey

Alien vs. Predator: Requiem: A needlessly pretentious title for another showdown between creepy acidic bug things and dreadlocked hardasses who detonate nuclear bombs if you beat them. This time, though, there’s no Sanaa Lathan, but they do have an R-rating, which is what horror nerds really want out of a movie like this.

The Great Debaters: A feel-good Oprah-fest based on a true story, starring Denzel Washington as a passionate debate-team teacher who teaches black teenagers to value intellectual cunning in 1935 Texas. There’s really nothing more fun than watching Denzel bring his A-game charismatic chatter to a movie, and this promises to be a hell of a lot of that.

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep: A boy finds a magic egg that hatches a creepy CGI sea monkey that turns into the Loch Ness Monster and also possibly involves an underwater Stonehenge. Then again, Beowulf turned out to look a bit better than I expected, so maybe this sea cow isn’t quite as unpleasant as it initially seems.

Juno: Finally expanding to nearly a thousand theaters is this quirky teen pregnancy dramedy with a stellar cast. You’ll be hearing about this one for months.