By Kim Morgan
Special to MSN Movies

How many of you dread Valentine's Day? For those not happily coupled up, it's just a painful reminder that either you don't have a significant other or, even worse, you have a lousy one who lets you down. Who needs that kind of disappointment?

But it's not really the silly cards and ubiquitous boxes of cheap chocolates that we yearn for on V-Day. It's the fantasy that something wildly romantic could happen to us like it does -- where else? -- in the movies.

Silver-screen affairs may be a dangerous standard to apply to real-life romance -- but we watch these films and want these feelings for ourselves, no matter how unattainable or poignant they could be. So in honor of Valentine's Day -- and especially for those who are alone or disgusted by the "Hallmark holiday" pressure -- we present our top 10 romantic movie moments. And remember, we're talking about moments, not romantic movies themselves (as you'll see by our first choice) ...

10. Goodfellas (1990)

Yeah, we know your reaction: "Goodfellas"? Didn't you say romantic movies? How on Earth did that land on this list? Easy... Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco's courtship is quite simply one of the sexiest in all of cinema. Director Martin Scorsese got how hot it is when a man realizes a good-looking woman cares enough to be angry with him, chiefly in the beginning of an attraction. So when Liotta's Henry Hill skips a date with Bracco's Karen, she hauls her car right up to him and chews him out in front of his friends: "You got some nerve standing me up!" Liotta's narration of remembering how, at that moment, Karen looked like Elizabeth Taylor only underscores the fires burning between these two. And the glances they share are so viscerally exciting you get goose bumps. It also doesn't hurt that Liotta never looked so good in all his life (you understand why Karen's nuts for this guy) and of course, the first date he eventually takes her on (remember the long tracking shot through the back of the night club right up to the front table?) is amazing. Seriously, for one second, you'll forget about the mobster hanging on a meat hook, or the wig salesman stabbed and stuffed in the trunk. No... really... you will.