Sometimes I feel like I'm tangled up in rolls and rolls of film reel here at work.

A lot of us here at The Mercury watch a lot of movies, and consequently wax our thoughts about them together like we're Ebert and Roeper or something. So it's only right to include The Merc's most enthusiastic film buffs (and buffettes) in choosing this year's finest films to grace the big screens, from cult-creating classics, to bloody monster fests, to massive money-raking blockbusters. Everything you should have seen, is here.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Mercury's panel of film enthusiasts and their favorite flicks of 2007:

Bill Coldren's picks
1. Live Free or Die Hard - As a faithful follower of John McClane, I was totally satisfied with this latest installment.


2. 28 Weeks Later - A ghoulishly tantalizing tale following the under-the-radar smash hit "28 Days Later." The thought of total wide spread chaos throughout the world has always been as appealing as slowing on the highway to view an accident.


3. 300 - This movie is a must-see.


4. I Am Legend - Will Smith has developed into a fine actor. This movie was well done.


5. Superbad - Nothing explains teen angst quite like this movie. I enjoyed the ride.


Kim Toth's picks
1. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street -- Bloody good!! Tim Burton at his best!


2. 300 -- Graphically amazing! And a good story too (even if it fudges the truth a bit). Should easily win an Oscar for best special effects and/or art direction. (It's got my vote for Best Costume too!)


3. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End -- Tall ships blasting each other into oblivion, and Davey Jones, Barbosa and Sparrow -- 3 of the best summer blockbuster movie characters ever ... Arrrrgh!


4. Eastern Promises -- here's my pick for drama. If you liked The Departed, give this Russian mob flick a try.


5. 1408 -- A Stephen King story done right on the big screen. Scary, intriguing and keeps you guessing to the end.


Honorable Mention: American Gangster, Superbad, 28 Weeks Later, Ratatouille and Planet Terror.
Forgive me, I didn't see: I Am Legend, Atonement or No Country for Old Men, which I hear are all excellent.
Most looking forward to in 2008: The Dark Knight and Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Chris March's Picks
1. Superbad - Sure, it's about some high school friends expending all their energy on getting drunk, as well as their rocks off; it's not revolutionary storytelling. But when you dress up a truly meaningful flick about friendship and growing up with complete nonsense and dirty hilarity like Judd Apatow did here, you have done more than make a movie that will disgust your mom. Beneath the dirt, this movie has a real vibrant heart and tells a strong "coming of age" story. And yet, there's to much great comedic banter to take it too seriously. That, my friends, is top-notch movie-making genius. And who knew a movie could actually make van Halen's "Panama" sound so stinkin' good? And of course, McLovin is easily the most memorable character of the year.


2. I'm Not There - A movie about Bob Dylan, where they never mention the name "Bob Dylan" in it? Yeah. A movie where 6 magnificent actors, including Cate Blanchett, all play different eras of Bob Dylan? Yeah. A movie with a whole treasure trove of Dylan music, covers and originals? Yeah. Sounds pretty weird, doesn't it? Yeah. Well, it totally works, and is probably the most accurate way to tell a story about a man who is made of countless stories, fictional and non-fictional.


3. Spiderman 3 - It wasn't Spiderman 2, but it certainly wasn't bad either. The Spidey Trilogy is to me what Star Wars is to all you Lucas nuts, if not more.


4. Transformers - Hands down, the blockbuster of the year. Old school Transformers fan boys dug it, and massive audiences dug it. When was the last time something like that happened?


5. Zodiac - David Fincher directed a movie about a puzzling killer we've never caught. Need I say more?


As you can see, I'm a bit of a kid when it comes to movies. I'll always be a sucker for the coming-of-age teen comedy ripe with filthy humor, and the comic book movies. Across The Universe and Aqua Teen Hunger Force the movie are also worth some mentioning.

Coming Tomorrow: free downloadable mix of Scene & Heard's favorite songs 0f 2007

Spiderman 3 came out on DVD yesterday, and while the reviews of it were extremely mixed, the film slammed me hard in the chest. I came home and immediately wrote the following column in a fit of inspiration, which printed in the Mercury last Spring. So, in case you missed it first time around, here again is my Spiderman column.

Like anyone else who lived through it, I will never forget the day terrorists attacked America on September 11, 2001. It replays over and over in my mind like a film reel, sitting in my 12^th grade English class watching the horrific events unfold live on television.

I felt a collective chill rip through the room as the first tower collapsed into a terrifying storm of rubble tumbling to the streets of Manhattan below. We froze in our seats, our minds scrambling for something to say, anything to make sense of the horror. It was the only time I ever heard a silence so loud.

Months later, many of us were still reeling from that day and the politics which followed. We became tangled in a web of pain, sadness, confusion, fury and vengeance. But above all else, we were lost. As a nation, we needed a hero, a resounding symbol of hope and strength to pick us up and dust us off. An athlete, a singer, a political leader, a family member, a teacher, God—anything or anyone to hold the torch high for us as we soldiered through our darkest hour.

For me, and many others, it was Spiderman who came to the rescue. That May, he came swinging through theatres and spun a web in our hearts. He donned a sleek patriotic outfit of red and blue while defending New York City from every doom it faced, whether it was a gang of easily dispensable bank robbers or a jacked-up bipolar madman armed with pumpkin bombs.

But it's not even the cunning heroics which make Spiderman the man for us to look up to. It's his unrelenting bouts with growing up, love, work, school, friends and family that have made him so genuine and endearing to us. Sure, he's got superhuman strength and can see things before they happen, but he's still a man who faces down the same demons we do.

Unlike the typical Supermen and Batmen, Peter Parker is a college student who struggles for work as a freelance photographer while living in a dilapidated city apartment where he barely makes rent. Not to mention, the thing which stirs him most is his complicated but unrequited love for a girl, Mary Jane Watson.

In high school, he was the uber-dork of the class before he transformed into the perfectly capable Spiderman who could climb walls and swing across the New York City skyline like a schoolyard jungle-gym.

Surely the details are different, but there's a little bit of Parker in all of us. Maybe we haven't been bitten by radioactive super spiders and given such awesome power, but we all try to make sense of what we have been given. And we all struggle to grow up and deal with the curves life throws us, like 9/11 for instance. Or maybe the death of a family member, like Parker's uncle Ben.

Thus, it isn't hard to understand life as Spiderman because a lot of us already are Peter Parker. Sure, he's got superpowers, but his superhero weakness is a greater vulnerability than kryptonite—he is just a guy. He is as capable of love as he is of hate, as capable of making mistakes as he is doing the right thing. I don't know about you, but that sounds a lot like me.

And the evil-doers which Spidey battles throughout his three movies hold this idea up just as well. The likes of Doc Ock (from Spiderman 2) and The Sandman (Spiderman 3) become just as endearing as ol' Spidey himself. These villains are shown as good-natured people at heart but become demented by bad circumstances and lose sight of themselves in their own madness. This happens to Spidey himself in Spiderman 3 as fame and love go to his head, turning him into an arrogant headspun jerk fueled by hatred and vengeance, not unlike his foes.

These movies show there is a monster within all of us. And when we feed ourselves with anger and revenge for the troubles we face, we lose sight of what matters to us most. That's why these movies were so important for us in the wake of 9/11, and continue to be. If we let disasters batter us, we end up becoming the demons we try to shake off.

But more importantly, these movies show there is a little hero in all of us as well. One person can make a difference if they choose to, but they have to choose to. Bad things will always happen to good people. Wearing masks and possessing super talents is not what transforms one into a hero, but making the most out of what you've been given and knowing how to forgive even the baddest of bad guys is what makes one a real hero.

Maybe most people haven't read as deeply into Spiderman as I have. But over these past five years, these movies taught me a great deal about dealing with the tragedies of life and moving on. About happily swinging through life from one moment to the next while trying not to get tangled in one of life's unfortunate webs.

And if I ever do get stuck, a web-slinging slickster comes along and helps me out by reminding me how much the two of us are actually alike, even if I don't got sticky silly string flying out of my wrists.
--by Chris March / cmarch@pottsmerc.com

TUNES: Muddy Waters / blues classics
FILM: Hostel 2, Trainspotting