Apart from the fact that that list always provokes me a lot,(seriously, Good/Bad/Ugly all the down at 12th?) with all the different taste out there , and all the different styles,why is the top movie always the Shawshank redemption? WHy does it appeal so much to so many, It'd really one of my favourites too, and it's something as rare as a really good adaptation of a Stephen King story, and it has decent actors, but there's nothing really catchy , no great action sequences, no effects, not a particularly amazing story, and really rare (especially for a Stephen King story) absolutely nothing supernatural or unrealistic happens throughout the whole film. It's something as rare as a realistic crime/mystery story that could be real,that has gone to the top. Maybe that's why people like it?
Personally quite a few of the films even in the top 25 doesn't even belong in the lower half of the top 1200 films made within the year they were made. (I will mention no names,but one war movie with an actor previously engaged to Jnny from the block really stands out....)