A former child star showed box-office muscle last week, but up against a con man, a hit man and a flesh-eating virus, Dickie Roberts' own poker buddies would probably bet against him.

The real match this weekend will be between directors Ridley Scott, in his follow-up to the acclaimed "Black Hawk Down," and Robert Rodriguez, who is releasing the third installment in a film series for the second time this year.

Scott's "Matchstick Men," a crime drama with comedy, stars Nicolas Cage as a scam artist whose next sting is mired by the unexpected arrival of his daughter, played by Alison Lohman ("White Oleander"). Also featured in the film, which is based on Eric Garcia's 2002 novel of the same name, is Sam Rockwell ("Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"), who plays the minion to Cage's phobia-hindered con man. (Click for photos from "Matchstick Men.")

Rodriguez, who finished the "Spy Kids" trilogy earlier this year, is now resurrecting his "El Mariachi" franchise, best known for the second installment, 1995's "Desperado."

Antonio Banderas returns for his second run as El Mariachi in "Once Upon a Time in Mexico," which will also star "Desperado" vixen Salma Hayek. In the film, a CIA agent played by Johnny Depp recruits Banderas' hit man to kill a corrupt general who has teamed with a drug lord to overthrow the Mexican government. (Click for photos from "Once Upon a Time in Mexico.")

Enrique Iglesias makes his acting debut in the film, which also features salsa star Rubén Blades, along with Willem Dafoe ("Spider-Man"), Mickey Rourke ("Spun"), Eva Mendes ("2 Fast 2 Furious") and Danny Trejo ("XXX").

While all eyes are on "Matchstick Men" and "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" to yield big ticket sales and launch the fall movie season, some are predicting "Cabin Fever" to be a dark horse, probably because of some similarities to "The Blair Witch Project." The gory thriller has a mostly unknown cast but has been well reviewed since debuting at the Toronto Film Festival a year ago. (Click for photos from "Cabin Fever.")

Eli Roth, whose credits include acting in "Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger 4," directed "Cabin Fever," which follows five college friends whose vacation deep in the woods goes awry when a stranger covered in sores infects one of them.

Opening in limited release this weekend is "Dummy," which stars Best Actor Academy Award winner Adrien Brody ("The Pianist") as a bored suburbanite who decides to fulfill his dreams of becoming a ventriloquist. Milla Jovovich ("Resident Evil") plays his punk-rocker neighbor, who ends up the only person supporting him.

"Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star" topped the box office last weekend, but with a relatively low $7 million intake (see " 'Dickie Roberts' Takes Box-Office Gold").

Also in select theaters is "Lost in Translation," written and directed by Sofia Coppola, the daughter of film icon Francis Ford Coppola and a moonlighting video director who most recently worked with the White Stripes (see "Sofia Coppola Scores Movie, Music Coups With 'Translation' ").

The movie features Bill Murray as a washed-up actor filming a commercial in Tokyo, where he befriends a married lost soul played by Scarlett Johansson ("Ghost World").