As for the final 2.....
2. The Shawshank Redemption
Red: [narrating] In 1966, Andy Dufresne escaped from Shawshank prison. All they found of him was a muddy set of prison clothes, a bar of soap, and an old rock hammer, damn near worn down to the nub. I remember thinking it would take a man six hundred years to tunnel through the wall with it. Old Andy did it in less than twenty. Oh, Andy loved geology. I imagine it appealed to his meticulous nature. An ice age here, million years of mountain building there. Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes really, pressure, and time. That, and a big ******* poster. Like I said, in prison a man will do most anything to keep his mind occupied. Turns out Andy's favorite hobby was totin' his wall out into the exercise yard, a handful at a time. I guess after Tommy was killed, Andy decided he'd been here just about long enough. Andy did like he was told, buffed those shoes to a high mirror shine. The guards simply didn't notice. Neither did I... I mean, seriously, how often do you really look at a mans shoes? Andy crawled to freedom through five hundred yards of **** smelling foulness I can't even imagine, or maybe I just don't want to. Five hundred yards... that's the length of five football fields, just shy of half a mile.
A truly captivating film. Truly an uplifting film that should give anybody a feeling of worthiness to society or hope. You can't give enough credit to the entire cast or the director Frank Darabont. I really can't say much about this movie because I believe it is almost perfect film-wise. I think it was robbed at the oscars and that's saying something since the film that beat it out in most occassions is in my top 50. Overall, I doubt I'll ever see another movie like this that is just captivating on so many levels.
1. Man on Fire
"Revenge is a meal best served cold"
I really can't lose either way with choosing Shawshank Redemption or Man on Fire as my number 1. I give the edge to Man on Fire simply for the fact that I feel it is a bit more of an emotional based film for me. Denzel Washington gives his best performance here in my opinion. Everything in this movie clicks for me, the directing, the acting, the score, and the ending to the movie is one of the best I've ever seen. It would be really tough for any movie to some day replace this movie as my number 1 film. Tony Scott's career can be defined as great after a film like this.
So, there you have it. That's my top 100. Thanks for the comments from everyone and feel free to keep them coming. I'll probably tabulate some random statistics about my top 100 at some point in time.