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John Q
New Line Cinema


8.0

based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 60 votes
Read user comments
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for violence, language and intense thematic elements

Starring Denzel Washington, Anne Heche, Ray Liotta, Shawn Hatosy, Kimberly Elise, Keram Malicki-Sánchez, and James Woods

John Q. Archibald (Washington) is an ordinary man who must face the fact that his health insurance will not pay for the emergency heart transplant that is his son's only hope. Vowing to do whatever it takes to keep his son alive, John Q decides his only hope is a desperate gamble, and he takes the emergency room hostage. (New Line Cinema)

GENRE(S):	Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	James Kearns
DIRECTED BY:	Nick Cassavetes
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: July 16, 2002 Video: July 16, 2002 Theatrical: February 15, 2002
RUNNING TIME:	118 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

An all-stops-out rabble-rouser that hurls a broadside at America's medical insurance crisis.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

It's hard to imagine how anyone could remain dry-eyed while watching the scene in which John Q. tries to cram in a lifetime of fatherhood advice in a goodbye speech to his son.

USA Today Claudia Puig

One can excuse the movie's missteps and melodramatic moments in the greater interest of the strong statement it makes about our health care system.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

This is an A-list cast toiling on a C-list screenplay.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Not a movie but a live-action agitprop cartoon so shameless and coarse, it's almost funny.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

It's as forgettable as they come.

Slate David Edelstein

Denzel Washington is so powerfully earnest an actor that you never want to laugh at him -- even when you ought to be in stitches.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The movie could have used a brain transplant. It doesn't explore injustice -- it just exploits it.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Like a tone-deaf singer at a benefit concert, John Q. is a bad movie appearing on behalf of a good cause.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

More hokey than heartfelt.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

Waste in the health care system is deplorable, but waste on the movie screen isn't so great either.

Film Threat Michael Dequina

With its simplistic, didactic approach, the presence of a top-flight ensemble is the only thing separating John Q from your average TV movie of the week.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

Washington's fire and righteous anger can only do so much, and the token grit amounts to a few grains of sand in the sentimental machinery.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

It's not honest, and it's certainly no solution.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Turns out to be hopelessly mediocre -- a poorly scripted, preachy fable that forgets about unfolding a coherent, believable story in its zeal to spread propaganda.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Gripping, if manipulative and somewhat preposterous, drama.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

A well-intentioned but self-defeatingly manipulative film that amounts to an impassioned commercial for national health care.

LA Weekly John Patterson

A coercive script by James Kearns, and some middling direction by Nick Cassavetes, can't rob the movie of an undeniable, headlong crowd-pleasing power.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The movie's tone and plot twists are so ludicrously overwrought that even Washington's admirably restrained performance -- can't rescue it from its own excesses.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The movie goes awry from the opening shots.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The kind of movie Mad magazine prays for. It is so earnest, so overwrought and so wildly implausible that it begs to be parodied.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

Plays less like an exposé than a piece of exploitation, its clear divide between good and evil allowing no breathing room for real drama.

The New Yorker David Denby

Falls below even minimal standards of dramatic decency. John Q is a trashy, opportunistic piece of pop demagoguery. [4 Mar 2002, p. 90]

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Washington can't save a picture that spends so much time worrying about a heart that it loses its head.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

So lacking in shame that it finally seems laughable.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A shamelessly manipulative commercial on behalf of national health insurance.

Village Voice Ed Park

Washington is in default dignified mode here. He capably embodies the hero's transformation from doughy dad to man of action, amid the movie's shameless button-pushing and cheap religious overlay.

New Times (L.A.) Andy Klein

When emotion is called for, Cassavetes drags out every tear-jerking moment beyond the point of tolerability.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

This movie, written in crayon by James Kearns, is too dumb to come up with a way of defeating the system by using its own rules.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Leaves you feeling as if you've been alternately milked and bitch-slapped. Its manipulation is so clumsy and obvious -- and, ultimately, it goes so far astray from its original guiding principles -- that it leaves you feeling dangled and dazed.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Is it possible none of these actors read the script before they signed on? Were New Line executives perhaps too hung up on hobbits to notice how whacked out this movie is?

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

John Q. is as fake as that tear, an exploitative mess trying to pass as social activism.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Every so often a movie transcends stupidity and soars into the empyrean of true idiocy. John Q. is such a movie.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 60 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Retchel A. gave it a9:
I'm a nursing student from the Philippines. I watched the movie not because it was my choice but because it was a requirement in our nursing program. At first, I thought that the movie was all crap, just like what most movie reviews says..But they are mistaken because for me, Denzel Washington deserved the award that he got after doing the movie(best actor) because it was so good..Call it corny or anything like that but also admit that these kind of things can happen in the real setting, especially if you have the kind of family that John Q. had, a not-so-well-off family.. There was even a part of the movie where in I have to get out of the room just so I won't make myself be a laughing stuff and cry in front of my classmates!!! It feels so good to be able to watch a good movie like this after 'beyond borders'... This should be how fathers dedicate themselves in taking care of thier children.... Keep up the good work guys!!!(for all the members and crews of this movie).

[Anonymous] gave it a1:
One word to describe this movie "Corny". I got into this movie in for free, yet I felt like i should've got paid for watching it. My two friends like it. They thought it was a smart movie because they got the repetitive "message". But this is coming from a couple of bone heads thought "Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo" was a brilliant comedy.

N S gave it a 6:
I don't know why this movie was rated so low by the critics. Now I know it wasn't a strong script, and it had a lot of cliche moment's from other hostage movies, I could have sworn it tooks bits and pieces from movies such as Dog Day Afternoon, The Negotiator, Mad City, and other's I can't think of. But it is touching, and Denzel gives a strong performance. I know it does try to push some propaganda on you, but look past the message of Health Care, and just rate the performances of the actors/actresses and the overall script and you come up with an above average mediocre movie. It needed a little bit more character developement. Characters that are supposed to be villains turn so easily, and cops are just stupid as heck. I hate movies that make the police or SWAT seem so clumsy/stupid, like any human being can just get away with anything. I mean, yeah I know our national security may not be top notch like in the movie SWAT but they sure as heck would miss with a snipe attack and then fall from the roof, losing his gun and then getting beat up. That's just ridiculous in a serious Drama movie.

Kevin G. gave it a 10:
What a great move. Touches a persons heart.

Becky B. gave it a 10:
This movie is one of the best ever. Stop worry's about money think about the children that suffer, what if you were in those shoes as a parent, what would you do. A real parent would do anything to save their child. I know I would....

Alex V. gave it a 10:
A movie that has believable emotions is quite rare these days. John Q. actually delivers.

Jonathan S. gave it a 10:
Simple, a great film enough said.

John Q New Line Cinema

John Q
New Line Cinema