Run, Fatboy, Run (2007)

Legend has it, that on September 12, 490 BCE, the underdog Athenian army defeated the much larger invading Persian army at the Battle of Marathon. Then, because there were no instant messages, email, phones, telegraphs, cars, bicycles, helicopters, smoke signals, carrier pigeons, televisions, or radios, a messenger named Pheidippides ran the 26 or so miles from Marathon to Athens to tell everybody that Athens won the BCS National Championship despite not being in the SEC. And then the dude died. Real historians will say that's all bullshit (especially the BCS National Championship part... everybody knows the SEC owns that thing) and that it's an amalgamation of two different events that happened around the time of the Battle of Marathon: 1) Pheidippides ran from Athens to Sparta to ask Gerard Butler to grease up and help out (and that run was about 140 miles... marathons are for wimps) and 2) the entire Athenian army marched briskly back to Athens from Marathon after the battle because a different part of the Persian army was threatening their hometown.
In about the complete opposite physical shape is Simon Pegg in Run, Fatboy, Run. In it, he plays a jerk that abandons his pregnant fiance Libby (Thandie Newton) at the altar and then decides 5 years later he wants her back. Except that he has to fight even jerkier Hank Azaria to do so. The battle? Running a marathon.

1977 - One of the most notorious events in South African history occurred when 30 year old anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko died in police custody. Once word got out, the anti-apartheid movement gained increased support from around the world. The police officers involved were never prosecuted although the South African government did pay Biko's family some restitution. The film Cry Freedom came out ten years later and details Biko's story through the eyes of his friend, journalist Donald Woods (Kevin Kline). Denzel Washington, in one of his earliest starring roles, is Biko.
For bonus points, go get the Peter Gabriel song stuck in you head.

Happy birthday to Joey Pants! Joe Pantoliano turns 62 today. It's so hard to pick just one! I just watched The Matrix over the weekend, so how about let's do The Goonies, eh? Who doesn't love The Goonies?