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John Q (2002)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:126
Fresh:28
Rotten:98
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
Reviews for John Q
Great for thirty-five minutes, then drops into a dead zone and stays there for an hour and change.
The movie comes dangerously close to saying that the solution to a personal grievance is, well, terrorism, when you get right down to it.
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
Instead of presenting the story and allowing us to draw our own conclusions, Cassavetes blatantly tells us what we should think.
Washington, Woods, and Duvall are so capable, they almost save this schlock-fest from itself.
Latest News for John Q
November 27, 2008:
Wellsphere.com: The Denzel Washington John Q Interview ![]()
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February 22, 2006:
Cassavetes Working on Fact-Based "Bomb"
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