Killing Emmett Young

Worth watching for strong acting
Emmett Young (Scott Wolf), a homicide detective, has only a short time left to live. He meets a government agent (Gabriel Bryne) who convinces him that the best way to die is to put out a hit on himself. Emmett agrees and hires a hit man (Tim Roth) to kill him sometime in the near future, but he's determined to solve his case before his time is up. This movie is worth watching for Scott Wolf, Gabriel Bryne, and Tim Roth. Wolf is charming and believable (watch how much of his acting is what's behind his eyes) He's instantly sympathetic and likeable. Tim Roth always has a restrained intensity ... even when he does little I believe his character is capable of anything. The payoff is always the twist, many times, and in this case, its in his unexpected and shocking vulnerability. I wish the movie would have given more to the abilities of the actors. The plot is predictable, ends abruptly, and although adequate, not intriguing in itself. The acting is what makes this film worth...

DARK LITTLE SURPRISE
This movie is in lots of bargain bins, and regretfully so. Filmed in 2002, KILLING EMMETT YOUNG is a very unusual, well acted little thriller with excellent performances. Scott Wolf (Party of Five) delivers a solid and convincing performance as the title character, who after being diagnosed with a painful terminal illness, decides to hire a hit man to kill him to spare him the agonizing death. Gabriel Byrne plays the sly ex-FBI agent who suggests this to Young, and Tim Roth is excellent as the ex-cop who becomes Emmett's hit man. Khandi Alexander plays Young's partner, a seemingly cold fish who has a heart buried under a tough exterior. The movie has a serial killer subplot that is important to Young to solve before his demise. The plot shifts however when the lab results reveal something quite different than a terminal diagnosis.

Director Keith Snyder keeps the pace interesting and you're wondering just who the serial killer might be.

The ending is a little...

Great story, great acting
I picked up this movie in the bargain bin and decided to give it a try. Boy, am I glad I did! This story is tense and strong. Both Scott Wolf and Tim Roth play good guys, it's just that they're motivated by different things. Roth sees Wolf's character as "the man he could have been" and takes the hit job as a personal vendetta. Then, as time progresses and he takes a new mind set, his outlook changes and you find yourself rooting more for his character than Wolf. But there are no bad actors in this film. I was never a Party of Five fan, but Wolf's acting here is nothing short of amazing! The story ends a little too abruptly (and with a major plot thread left out there), but I was still very satisfied with the movie when it was over. By the way, it gets its rating mostly from the language (and there's not really much of that) and the subject matter of the serial killer. If they'd just toned down a couple of the words, this could easily have passed for PG-13. A strong, compelling story...

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