With most of MSN’s entertainment pages devoted to “Scott Pilgrim” — and rightly so, dammit — it fell to me to come up with a little counterprogramming. So this week’s movie gallery uses “The Expendables” as its launching pad, looking at eight other attempts to relaunch a character, concept or franchise for a new audience.

Yeah, Stallone turns up in a couple of ’em. Reinvention is kind of his thing lately.

Also, if you find yourself near a television set this afternoon, flip on CTV News Channel to catch me talking about “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” under what I hope will be a thick layer of makeup. I’ve caught some sun this week. I’m currently set to go on at 3:15, but check my Twitter feed for any last-minute changes. See you there!

Hi, everybody! I’m posting this from sunny Los Angeles, where I have ended up on a whirlwind trip to interview famous people and attend a proper Hollywood premiere at Mann’s Chinese Theater — the one with the handprints and everything. Sometimes my life just gets ridiculous, you know?

But never mind my life right now. You want to know about the movies opening this week, don’t you? Even the ones that aren’t “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”? Well, let’s get right to it:

“Animal Kingdom”: David Michod’s directorial debut follows a fairly dysfunctional Australian crime family through their paces in this buzzed-up thriller. Rad found it promising enough.

“The Disappearance of Alice Creed“: J Blakeson’s minimalist kidnapping thriller may be more sizzle than steak, plot-wise, but all three actors are great and the visuals are top-notch. Gemma Arterton might finally catch a break with this one.

“Eat Pray Love“: If you were looking for the precise point where entitlement meets pandering, check out Ryan Murphy’s ultra-glossy adaptation of Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestselling memoir. When even Richard Jenkins seems embarrassed, you have made a terrible mistake.

“The Expendables“: Having resurrected Rocky and Rambo, Sylvester Stallone now tries to bring back the entire cheesy 1980s  action genre. Hey, at least Eric Roberts is getting work again.

“Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work”: I’ve been chasing this since Hot Docs, and still haven’t managed to catch a screening. But Glenn‘s praise is good enough for me.

“If I Knew What You Said”: An antisocial rocker girl is sent to a camp for the deaf in this Filipino export. Andrew is unmoved.

“Mesrine: Killer Instinct“: The first half of Jean-Francois Richet’s epic biography of the French master criminal Jacques Mesrine has some amazing moments and a compelling Vincent Cassel performance to power it along — but, obviously, no ending. And no release date for the second half, as of yet. Weird.

“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World“: In which Michael Cera demonstrates that there’s some life left yet in that nervous-stammer tic of his, and — more importantly — Edgar Wright steps up and proves he’s the most interesting director working in commercial films today. It’s not perfect, but it rocks harder than anything else you’ll see this summer. And it’s an awful lot of fun.

“Soul Kitchen”: Fatih Akin tries his hand at comedy with this low-key farce set at a German restaurant. Udo Kier’s in it, so it’s on my list of things to see. And Susan didn’t mind it, either.

Right, that’s everything. I’ll be coming home on the red-eye, so I’ll see you all tomorrow. It’ll be like I never left!

This week’s NOW features me at my chattiest, in conversation with Edgar Wright and Michael Cera, director and star of “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”, as well as Cera’s co-stars Anna Kendrick, Brandon Routh and Jason Schwartzman.

But wait, there’s more! I also spoke to Gemma Arterton, star of “The Disappearance of Alice Creed”, and Dolph Lundgren, who’s in “The Expendables”. But that was just to seem well-rounded. I’m all about “Scott Pilgrim” this week … and you should be, too.

Trust me on this.

We’re wrapping up the Free Flicks series at Harbourfront tonight with a screening of our audience-choice film, Lasse Hallstrom’s “Chocolat”.

So if you’re downtown and want to see a prime example of contrived Miramax Oscar bait — I’m sorry, that should read “exquisite European cinema produced for mainstream American audiences” — stop by the Sirius Stage around 8:45 pm and join Ali and me for the season’s last hurrah. There could be gift certificates!

The comedy stylings of Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg provided enough of a kick to knock Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” out of the top box-office slot this weekend; “The Other Guys” pulled in $35.6 million, easily winning the frame. “Inception” remained a strong contender, taking second place with an $18.6 million gross; “Step Up 3D” came in third with $15.5 million.

And in other news, Patricia Neal, the Oscar-winning actress who survived both a series of strokes and a thirty-year marriage to Roald Dahl, has died at the age of 84 after a battle with lung cancer. Respect.

Because Will Ferrell is generally good for a laugh, this week’s MSN Movies gallery looks at how he does with on-screen partners — who’s encouraged him to ever-greater heights of absurdity, who’s pulled him down, who’s just been weirdly mismatched, that sort of thing.

I left out Robert Duvall in “Kicking and Screaming” because that wasn’t exactly a partnership sort of thing. Also because, having just seen Duvall knock it out of the park in “Get Low”, it just seemed mean to bring up one of the actor’s least interesting performances. Which I suppose I’ve just done anyway. Oh, well.

I also left out Ferrell’s greatest collaborator, Adam McKay, because he’s a writer and director rather than a proper co-star … though he does turn up on-screen in “The Other Guys“, as the leader of a crew of hobos dedicated to having late-night orgies in Ferrell’s Prius.

As I said: Ferrell’s greatest collaborator.

“Inception” can’t possibly hold onto the top spot for a fourth straight week, can it? Surely one of the new kids in town will bring it down. But looking out at the contenders, I’m not so sure …

“The Death of Alice Blue“: Park Bench’s no-budget corporate satire about a young woman (Alex Appel) who discovers her bosses are bloodsuckers is the kind of movie you want to like; it’s mildly clever and the production design is impressive. But it’s also really dull and only mildly clever, so …

“Get Low“: Robert Duvall reminds us why he’s considered one of America’s finest actors in Aaron Schneider’s elegaic drama about a man coming to terms with himself. But Sissy Spacek, Bill Murray and Lucas Black ain’t no bums, either.

“The Good, the Bad, the Weird“: It’s taken over two years for Kim Ji-woon’s delirious Western-inflected action comedy to land a Canadian theatrical release. It’ll be on DVD later this month, but if you have a chance to catch it on the big screen, you really should.

“Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel”: Brigitte Berman gives the Playboy godfather the hagiography she apparently believes he deserves. (I reviewed the TIFF version; Susan chose to take on the revised theatrical cut.) Seriously, though, if there’s one man on the planet who doesn’t need another blowjob …

“The Immaculate Conception of Little Dizzle”: Yeah, I don’t know what the title means either. But Susan and Kieran aren’t exactly over the moon about it.

“The Other Guys“: You know how Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan never quite got the buddy-cop chemistry right? Amazingly, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg have it in this pleasantly ridiculous action comedy, which features Samuel L. Jackson and The Rock in the swaggering-dickhead roles they were born to play. My review should go up later today is up now.

“Step Up 3D”: John Chu — who made “Step Up 2 The Streets” one of the more surprising dance-movie sequels I’ve ever seen — adds a third dimension for his follow-up. Glenn and Jason are conflicted about the result.

Anyway, I’m thinking “The Other Guys” could land big, or maybe “Step Up 3D” — those inflated ticket prices can’t hurt. But if you’re not inspired by anything you see here, you can always hit the Underground for tonight’s Wright Stuff double-bill of my beloved “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz”. A splendid time is guaranteed for all.

This week’s NOW is on the stands, featuring my interview with Aaron Schneider, director of the very good new film “Get Low”, which opens in Toronto tomorrow. The audio clips are worth a listen, too.

Also in this issue, I celebrate the return of The Wright Stuff to Toronto. Yup, Edgar Wright’s back in town on the “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” press tour, and the director is bringing a few of his favorite features to the Toronto Underground Cinema for the weekend.

What’s screening? Why, read the piece! And then check the Underground’s website for the titles of Saturday and Sunday’s second features, which had yet to be confirmed at post time. But if they’re the ones the theater was trying to secure last week, you can expect a whole lot of fun.

I totally forgot to mention it in this morning’s post, but I’ll be introducing Adrienne Shelley’s “Waitress” tonight at 9 pm at Harbourfront Centre — the latest in this summer’s Free Flicks series, which concludes next week with a title selected by our very own audiences.

And what did the audience choose? Come down tonight and find out! Assuming the weather isn’t horrible, in which case I’d totally understand if you stayed home.