Emmett's Mark

Interesting thriller for first-time director Keith Snyder about a young police officer who suddenly is informed he is terminally ill. Unusual first-rate performances and absorbing atmosphere in a debutante filmmaker. An intelligent film.

Scott Wolf plays a young detective called Emmett Young, who's said to have one week to live.He hires someone to kill him.When he wants to cancel the order, it's not so easily done.Emmett's Mark (2002) is a fine thriller drama that manages to keep the suspense on from the beginning till the end.Scott Wolf, who played Bailey Salinger in Party of Five, is very good in the lead.Gabriel Byrne, who plays the guy after him, is very good also.Other actors I could mention are Khandi Alexander and Tim Roth.Everybody's great in the movie.The plot is, I think, something unique.You don't see movies like this every day.Sure it's not a masterpiece and soon to have a classic status, but who cares.It's great entertainment.I think this movie is way underrated and you should give it a chance.All of you.

This is a fairly bleak movie that tries to give a message of hope: live your life to the full. The acting is mostly good, Tim Roth giving a particularly down-beat depiction of a no-hoper trying to find some kind of joy and purpose in his life, even if that is being an assassin. Scott Wolff, the hero detective is good too, also trying hard to make sense of his life. Gabriel Byrne does a great American accent, but deserves to be in better movies than this. There's a line in the film something like, "If you were going to make something of your life, you would have done it by now." Maybe that's the message. But we also get the hint that if we stay true to ourselves everything will work out. Anyway, the plot follows through if you concentrate a bit, and it has a satisfactory ending. I enjoyed it more than most things I see these days.

Scott Wolf,(Emmett Young) gave an outstanding performance as a young detective who just starts on the police force and is an eager beaver to achieve his goal as an FBI agent in the future. However, Emmett is given some medical advice from this physician that greatly upsets him and throws him completely out of focus. His girlfriend, Sarah,(Sarah Clarke), "24" Nina Myers,'04 TV series, decides to leave him because he never spends any time with her and pays her very little attention. Despite all these personal problems, he has his mind set on a string of female killings and will stop at nothing in order to attempt to capture this serial killer. There is plenty of twists and turns in this mystery and it will keep you guessing just who the killer or killers are. Almost forgot, Khandi Alexander,(Detective Middlestat),CSI TV Series, was very hot and sexy looking as a forensic specialist/Detective.

AKA: Emmett's Mark, this was sent straight-to-video for no reason. It's pretty good.

Scott Wolf plays the title character who is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Young meets a stranger (Byrne) who can a hire a hit-man (Tim Roth) to kill him. Young accepts the offer at first, but he changes his mind at the last minute and now has to stop his own death.

The best part of the movie is the performance by Roth. He could just phone in his role, but he puts in an extra layer of character development that makes you like him. Byrne and Wolf also put in fine performances. There's also a really well-shot foot chase and while there's no reason for it, it was welcomed. If you're looking for something different, "Killing Emmett Young" is a decent choice.

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