Iron Man himself took another step toward movie immortality Monday morning in Hollywood.

Robert Downey Jr. -- who famously rebounded in recent years after jail and rehab time for drug offenses -- reclaimed his mainstream iconic status by joining the likes of Charlton Heston, Eddie Murphy and Ava Gardner with his hands and feet immortalized in cement outside the Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard.

Seen in the right light, 2009 was a great year for movies; too bad you probably didn't see some of the best.

It's not your fault; many of the year's most overlooked movies barely made it past the festival circuit and into theaters, and even then, they may have been released only in New York or Los Angeles. Or only in art-houses. And with film critics losing their jobs by the dozens, there were few left to review these movies and give them the attention and publicity they deserved. As a result, none of the movies on this list grossed more than $1 million at the domestic box office.

In fact, several of them grossed under $100,000. (All sales figures are from Box Office Mojo.) Still, you may still be able to catch these movies in theaters or on DVD. Here they are, ten of the best movies you didn't see this year.

If instead of having 10 Best Picture nominees for 2009, the folks running the Oscars had decided to do a Ten Best list for the decade about to end, I doubt that many '09 movies would be on it. And last year didn't offer many legititmate contenders, either. It's not just the economy that's been in a recession lately.

But overall, the first decade of the new millennium has delivered plenty of first-rate motion pictures, including Peter Jackson's 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy, for my money the greatest movie serial of all time (sorry 'Star Wars' fans, but George Lucas' dreadful second trilogy tainted the franchise). It is also the decade in which computer-generated animation was perfected and which saw the resurgence of better-than-ever 3D.

I've been producing Decade Top 10 lists since the end of the Sublime '70s and would rank the current one third, behind the '70s and '90s and ahead of the woeful '80s. But all of the movies on my Double Ought list, and my second string of choices for Best Animated Features, are destined to become classics.

See some hilarious movie endings for those flicks that still have you guessing. [College Humor]

Big money doesn't always mean big scares -- see 10 freakishly profitable low-budget horror flicks. [Rotten Tomatoes]

New -- and even more ridiculous -- images from 'Avatar.' [Rotten Tomatoes]

Because you know you can't get enough of Keanu Reeves, see him dodge Lego bullets. [I-Am-Bored]

Chace Crawford and a lot of, um, green in the first look at 'Twelve.' [HitFix]

Has there ever been an Oscar contender quite as topical as Jason Reitman's latest critical juggernaut 'Up in the Air'?

Named Best Film of 2009 by the National Board of Review last week, 'Up in the Air' is "a timeless movie that's utterly of its time," trumpets the Washington Post.

Revolving around a corporate downsizer (George Clooney) who jet sets around the nation laying people off, the acclaimed dramatic comedy (comedic drama?) features numerous gut-wrenching scenes of employees swallowing the bad news.

Wondered what you missed on the tube while you were out Christmas shopping or seeing 'New Moon' for the 10th time? Inside TV's got you covered:

After airing an ill-advised Tiger Woods sketch that mocked domestic abuse, 'Saturday Night Live' is facing its own round of apologies. Guess they should have thought twice about the skit, what with Rihanna being the musical guest that night. Oops. Watch the video clip of the controversial skit..

Spike Jonze, the innovative auteur behind such big-screen head trips as Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, now brings his unique vision to Maurice Sendak's classic bedtime favourite, Where the Wild Things Are.

We caught up with Jonze at the end of a long day of interviews, where he shared with us his inspiration for making his first family-friendly film, how Sendak was a surprising influence and why he used an unorthodox method to bring the monsters to life.