Johnny Skidmarks

Despite its title 1998's "Johnny Skidmarks" is NOT a comedy but a modest noirish thriller in which titular quiet freelance crime-scene photographer Peter Gallagher works for the cops (including John Lithgow), insurance companies AND a crew of blackmailers linked to the mob. That latter crew though start turning up dead one by one, just as Gallagher meets (through his deceased wife's brother Jack Black) sultry seductive dame Frances McDormand. Is a blackmail victim wreaking revenge, and if so is McDormand involved? Co-writer (with William Preston Robertson) / director John Raffo does a passable job - though with THAT title, it SHOULDA been a comedy.

This film wants to be a black comedy, but doesn't quite pull it off. It's like the director every now and then said "Oh yeah, it's a black comedy. Do something funny now". It just isn't consistent. Watch "Fargo" instead. I think Frances McDormand was trying to reprise her wonderful role in that film and picked this loser. And John Lithgow is capable of so much better. Not bad but very ordinary.

Peter Gallagher is a police crime photographer (hence his nickname). He's a widower and hangs out at his brother-in-law Jack Black's burger joint, where he has recently met and begun an affair with grass widow and recovering alcoholic Frances McDormand. He also has a profitable side business of taking blackmail photos of men lured to a cheap motel by a prostitute; that ring is run by John Kapelos. And now the other members of the blackmail ring are being murdered. Pal John Lithgow is heading the investigation and Gallagher is worrying that Lithgow may not catch the killer before Gallagher is murdered. Also, that he might catch the murderer and Gallagher's activities will be revealed.

It's certainly a well cast, well lit neo-noir that bumps along at a steady pace despite the erratic behavior of everyone. The only real distraction is that Gallagher seems to bear a remarkable resemblance to Billy Bob Thornton, and I kept imagining how he would have handled the role. Over all, it's unremarkable, but it certainly is engaging while it's on the screen.

I found Skidmarks absolutely compelling. Peter Gallagher plays a crime-scene photographer with a sideline of blackmailing men who take his prostitute friend to motels. Gallagher, whom I've not much liked in other movies, does a terrific job as the numb, depressed antihero, unaffected by the crime scenes and accident scenes he photographs until his fellow blackmailers start turning up as victims. The movie is full of deadpanned quips and black humor (e.g., the exchange between McDormand and Gallagher when she's trying to pick him up in a hamburger joint. McDormand, cool and tough: "Do you have a name?" Gallagher: "Yeah. Do you?") The film is not flashy enough ever to have made it big, but the plot and characters are utterly original and the acting is uniformly excellent.

This movie was better then I expected.

What little gore there was was top notch and effective to the scene,and the production values were fine.

I loved Jack black in it...he was the only Comedy in this "dark comic mystery"

John Lithgow was over the top,and fun as a psycho cop,and Gallagher was very good as the brooding photographer.

The script was a little weak and not fleshed out that well,still all in all a good movie.

The basic story is a freelance photographer gets in over his head with blackmail...then add some twists.