The Usual Suspects

Pete Postlethwaite, Stephen Baldwin and Gabriel Byrne in The Usual Suspects

A movie for every day of the year ā€“ a good one 2 January Pete Postlethwaite dies, 2011 On this day in 2011, aged 64, the actor Pete Postlethwaite died of pancreatic cancer. It had been diagnosed in March 2009. Postlethwaite had already survived cancer once, having been diagnosed of testicular cancer in 1990, which went into remission after he had a testicle removed. An actor simultaneously of great force and nuance, Postlethwaiteā€™s relatively uncommon name marks his family down as having originated in Postlethwaite in Cumbria, England (the name means Postleā€™s Farm). His relatively uncommon looks ā€“ huge bony cheekbones, honest putty nose, angry skin ā€“ were matched by his trajectory into … Read more

Xchange

Stephen Baldwin plays a clone in sci-fi thriller Xchange

Hereā€™s one of a number of interesting sci-fi films produced in Canada in the wake of Vincenzo Nataliā€™s Cube. Itā€™s a low-budget body-swap futureshocker with three different actors (Stephen Baldwin, Kyle MacLachlan and Kim Coates) all vaguely playing the same man, a ā€œfloaterā€ refusenik named Alvin Toffler. Thereā€™s a joke in that name if youā€™re a dyed in the wool sci-fi fan. Possibly also funny is that in this futureworld if youā€™ve swapped bodies (thatā€™s the ā€œfloatingā€ bit) with someone but canā€™t get back to your starting position you can park yourself inside a clone while everything is sorted out. Enter Stephen Baldwin as the empty vessel waiting to be filled. So when … Read more