Before you were potty trained—or even born—Hollywood made some good movies. Movies You Might Have Missed is a recurring feature in which your SparkNotes editors recommend a few watchable films from the 1990s or before.

Movie musicals, in theory, are some of the wackiest films you'll ever see. Here you've got a perfectly great setting, a ready stable of characters, a nicely-developing dramatic intrigue...and then suddenly, out of nowhere and for no discernible reason, somebody breaks off in the middle of a conversation and bursts into song. And nobody thinks it's weird.

And that's weird. But it's also amazing!

Just about every electronic gadget now comes equipped with a video camera. At this point, you've probably "directed" a handful of videos, from the one of your friend eating a gross sandwich, to the one of Lady Gaga from 2500 feet away at a concert. But face it: your movies are a little less than Academy Award worthy. We here at Sparknotes offer up some tips on how to turn your minute-long clip of a dog getting stuck in a paper bag into Oscar gold.

Did you know that villanous_mwaha writes like 36,487 SparkLife posts every single day? Well she does. We're just going to keep publishing one every Thursday until she graduates from college...err..."uni." —SparkNotes editors

There are usually parts of great films that you can't help but love. Like, the witty remarks and the brave speeches, for example. Remember that film where the guy stood up and said…..he said……"Victory is—" no, that’s not right……..darn it! Some excellent quotes are simply impossible to remember, either because they are too long and complicated, or because they are so simple that they just go in one ear and out the other. Here are some that really vex me:

You just saw a horror movie. You came home. You're lying in bed. The lights are out.

WHAT WAS THAT?!

Just the wind.

Okay, keep breathing, stay calm, and consider the following:

1) Serial killers are very uncommon. There are probably only one or two in your entire neighborhood.

2) Ghosts don't exist. Well, maybe they do. But probably not?

The movie Avatar has been in theaters for a little over two weeks now and by most calculations it's been a huge success. It's already made over a billion dollars in worldwide box office receipts and critics have described it as "amazing," "powerful," "glorious," and "anti-imperialist" (critics; sheesh). But guess what—we're still not sure if we want to see it. When the hype gets this hyped, we get the sinking suspicion that reality will never live up to the image in our minds. This is what happened when we went to see Little Miss Sunshine a couple of weeks after it became a sensation. The movie was okay, but there was no way our experience was going to match the euphoric heights described by our friends who'd already seen it.

We're afraid that the same thing will happen with Avatar. It seems we've already missed the boat, and we're tempted to just let it sail. Should we?

Before you were potty trained—or even born—Hollywood made some good movies. Movies You Might Have Missed is a recurring feature in which your SparkNotes editors recommend a few watchable films from the 1990s or before.

Unless you've been living under a rock for the past few months, you've probably heard about James Cameron's new-and-omg-totally-groundbreaking film, Avatar. In it, the directorial master of melodrama has pioneered a brand new mapping technology to create...well, avatars, that mimic the minute movements and facial expressions of his actors. The result is a $250 million extravaganza, featuring an incredible world full of exotic bioluminescent flora, animals with super-sharp teeth and a few too many legs, and giant blue cat-people with tentacular ponytails and six-pack abs.

We think 2010 will be a great year for movies. Here are the 10 we're most excited to see:

10. Alice in Wonderland
The first trailer did nothing for us. But the second one looks pretty great, and reveals more information about the plot. (It seems as though Tim Burton is telling his own story instead of just rehashing Lewis Carroll's books.) But Helena Bonham Carter's head is still freaking us out.

With so many gossip websites popping up, it's easier than ever to keep tabs on who's dating whom, and which reality TV star gained 4 lbs. While some of the stories are true, most are simply well-orchestrated lies that entice readers to click links. After killing our brain cells by reading these stories all year, we thought we'd do something good with the information. So we rounded up our favorite rumors of 2009.

10. Jon Gosselin + Nadia "Octo-mom" Suleman 4-Ever
There were enough Jon and Kate Plus Eight gossip stories to fill a library this year. And just as many stories about the Octo-mom. We couldn't keep up. But when the (false) story hit that Jon would be dating the Octo-mom for a reality TV show, we were intrigued. Sadly, it was just a rumor. Still, we enjoyed coming up with possible show titles, such as: "Train Wreck," "Jon and Kate Minus Kate, Plus Nadia," and "Everyone's Sad."

Let your geek flag fly. It's a great time to be a nerd.

2009 had many wonderful moments that made the fan-boy or fan-girl inside all of us giggle and snort with delight. From movies to books to gadgets, it was difficult to narrow the list down, but we've finally settled on the 10 best nerd moments of the year. If you disagree, we will fight you…with our soon-to-be-honed powers of telekinesis.

Movies can be magical and emotional experiences—especially when they feature a great soundtrack. We hear a low, ominous chord from a cello, and we know the bad guy is about to jump out from behind the corner; we hear the sweet tones of swelling violins, coupled with the jubilant blasts of a trumpet, and we know that the hero is about to be reunited with his or her love interest.

If you could have a life soundtrack, would you? Let’s consider the pros and cons: