It is so earnest, so overwrought and so wildly implausible that it begs to be parodied.
Comment
02/15/02
John Q (2002)
22
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
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... [More]
Starring: Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, Anne Heche, James Woods
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Reviews for John Q
Top CriticWhether or not you favor a national health system (and I do), you may not want to be clubbed over the head by this rhetoric.
02/15/02
This preachy, painfully obvious man-against-the-system saga has its heart in the right place -- but its brain got left on the operating table.
02/15/02
Top CriticAfter Collateral Damage, you might imagine that most every aggrieved father cliché has been unturned. But no.
02/15/02
As good as Washington is, he can't stop John Q's slide into mediocrity, as it becomes progressively more heavy-handed, cliched, preachy and preposterous.
02/15/02
Next time hire Michael Moore
02/15/02
The criticism never rises above easy, cynical potshots at morally bankrupt characters...
02/14/02
A problem picture that says all the right things and does all the wrong ones.
02/14/02
So ham-fisted that it sabotages its own worthwhile arguments.
02/14/02
Top CriticA working class "us vs. them" opera that leaves no heartstring untugged and no liberal cause unplundered.
02/14/02
Entertaining, sure, despite absurd premises and melodramatic excesses.
02/14/02
At every turn it has the courage of its material.
02/14/02
Top CriticThe lousy John Q all but spits out Denzel Washington's fine performance in the title role.
02/14/02
The movie sets up a skirmish between the earnest and the ridiculous, and we're lucky that the collision provides some yuks.
02/14/02
Drowns in a sea of manipulative formulas and cardboard caricatures.
02/14/02
This is an A-list cast toiling on a C-list screenplay ... and working for a director whose agenda -- and propagandist tactics -- get the better of him.
02/14/02
It's incredibly crude and obvious, but that's clearly what director Nick Cassavetes is aiming for -- the kind of muckraking movie that throws only haymakers.
02/14/02
Benefits from the presence of Denzel Washington, but not much else.
02/14/02
The filmmakers have made a blatant piece of hard-core, unapologetic, heavy-handed political propaganda, one that whips viewers into a frenzy.
02/14/02
An exploitative mess trying to pass as social activism.
02/14/02
Latest News for John Q
November 27, 2008:
Wellsphere.com: The Denzel Washington John Q Interview 
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...
What’s Hot On RT
Other News
Fresh Links
Featured
RT on YouTube
Subscribe to RT's YouTube channel and don't miss a second of our cracking video content.
RT on Twitter
Follow Rotten Tomatoes and join us as we tweet about the week's releases.
IGN RSS Feeds