I'm obviously not one of the intellectuals here. I saw The Hurricane yesterday. Loved it. Another movie I saw recently which I found to be particularly compelling was "Pay it Forward". When I think about all time favorites, I could never settle on a single movie, but titles such as Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy, Field of Dreams, and A Few Good Men. Shawshank was also excellent. A couple of others that come to mind as being memorable are Ordinary People, The Deer Hunter, and the spaghetti westerns.
Favorite actor would have to be Paul Newman. Favorite actress isn't as easy, but Meryl Streep would be high on the list.