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Movies / On DVD / John Q
John Q

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John Q (2002)

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Reviews Counted:127

Fresh:28

Rotten:99

Average Rating:4.4/10

Consensus: Washington's performance rises above the material, but John Q pounds the audience over the head with its message.

Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: John Q. Archibald (Denzel Washington) is struggling through a recession trying to provide for his son Mikey (Daniel E. Smith) and his waitress wife (Kimberly Elise). Mikey collapses at a Little... John Q. Archibald (Denzel Washington) is struggling through a recession trying to provide for his son Mikey (Daniel E. Smith) and his waitress wife (Kimberly Elise). Mikey collapses at a Little League game and is rushed to a hospital. The situation is bleak. Only a heart transplant will save Mikey's life. John's HMO refuses to cover the expensive surgery. With the hospital and his insurance provider unwilling to help and his wife pleading with John to act, he takes matters into his own hands, holding the hospital's renowned heart surgeon (James Woods) and several others hostage in an emergency care wing until the surgery will be performed. Nick Cassavetes directed this attack on the American health care system. Like his previous feature, SHE'S SO LOVELY, Cassavetes proves adept at mining the political ramifications out of human drama. The film criticizes hospitals and health care providers for working in collusion against the working class. This moving drama is propelled by the intense lead performance by Washington as one man against an unjust system. [More]

Starring: Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, Anne Heche, James Woods

Starring: Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, Anne Heche, James Woods, Ray Liotta, Kimberly Elise, Daniel E. Smith, Shawn Hatosy, Eddie Griffin, Kevin Connolly, Troy Winbush

Director: Nick Cassavetes

Director: Nick Cassavetes
Screenwriter: James Kearns
Producer: Mark Burg, Oren Koules
Composer: Aaron Zigman
Studio: New Line Cinema

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Reviews for John Q

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
12/30/06
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

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Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

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Full Review Source: This is London | comment Comment
12/15/03
Alexander Walker
Alexander Walker
This is London

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Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
10/30/02
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
N/R

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Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
08/12/02
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
N/R

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Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
05/13/02
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Great for thirty-five minutes, then drops into a dead zone and stays there for an hour and change.

Full Review Source: UK Critic | comment Comment
05/05/02
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
Ian Waldron-Mantgani
UK Critic
N/R

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Full Review Source: FilmFour.com | comment Comment
04/30/02
FilmFour.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Doesn't so much need a heart as a brain transplant.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
04/22/02
Neil Smith
Neil Smith
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Strands good actors in mushy, movie-of-the-week material. [Blu-ray]

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
05/17/09
Peter Canavese
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews
N/R

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Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | comment Comment
04/29/09
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Felix Vasquez Jr.
Cinema Crazed

The movie comes dangerously close to saying that the solution to a personal grievance is, well, terrorism, when you get right down to it.

Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com | comment 1 Comment
09/24/07
Rob Gonsalves
Rob Gonsalves
eFilmCritic.com

Social messages, simplistic action, and teary melodrama are manipulatively but unsuccessfully mixed in this picture, which tries to provide a "hard" look at an honest working-class man (Washington) who loses control while trying to save his child's life

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
12/18/06
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

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Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Film Threat
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Film Threat
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/06/05
Film Threat
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

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Full Review Source: FilmStew.com | comment Comment
02/01/04
FilmStew.com
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Instead of presenting the story and allowing us to draw our own conclusions, Cassavetes blatantly tells us what we should think.

Full Review Source: Star-Democrat (Easton, MD) | comment Comment
01/07/04
Greg Maki
Greg Maki
Star-Democrat (Easton, MD)
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: BlackFilm.com | comment Comment
05/13/03
Wilson Morales
Wilson Morales
BlackFilm.com

Washington, Woods, and Duvall are so capable, they almost save this schlock-fest from itself.

Full Review Source: Film Quips Online | comment Comment
02/08/03
John R. McEwen
John R. McEwen
Film Quips Online
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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Latest News for John Q

November 27, 2008: Wellsphere.com: The Denzel Washington John Q Interview Opens in new window
More...

March 23, 2006: Critical Consensus: "Inside Man" is Certified Fresh, Second Best-Reviewed Wide Release Of
Tension: it's the key to many a film, and this week's wide releases bring three variants on that theme. We've got a hostage situation ("Inside Man"), class conflict... More...

February 22, 2006: Cassavetes Working on Fact-Based "Bomb"
Filmmaker Nick Cassavetes will soon get to work on "Bombing Harvey," a fact-based tale of a Hungarian scientist who tried to plant a bomb in a Lake Tahoe casino in an... More...

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