John Q (2002)
Bill's Rating: 3 Out of 5 Read User Reviews - Write a Review!
Premiere Photos
View photos from the 'John Q' Premiere
Movie Image Action/Adventure and Drama
1 hr. 58 min. John Q. Archibald is an ordinary man who works at a factory and takes care of his family. His wife Denise and young son Michael are his world. But when Michael falls seriously ill and needs an emergency heart transplant operation that John Q. can't afford and his health insurance won't cover, he vows to do whatever it will take to keep his son alive. With time and options running out, a desperate gamble becomes his only hope- he takes the emergency room hostage. As John Q. barricades himself inside the hospital along with his unwitting group of emergency room hostages, many of them in need of medical care themselves, he faces off with a veteran police hostage negotiator and a quick-tempered police chief who wants to bring a swift end to the stand-off.

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

Release Date: February 15, 2002 Nationwide. Showtimes & Tickets
Cast and Credits
Starring: Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, Anne Heche, James Woods, Eddie Griffin
Directed by: Nick Cassavetes
Produced by: Mark Burg, Oren Koules
Written by: James Kearns
Distributor: New Line Cinema

Bill's Comments

This movie has a bunch of my favorite actors, pulled together to take on one of the biggest issues in our society right now --- health care, and more specifically, HMOs. Certainly HMOs are vulnerable to many criticisms, but unfortunately I don't think that this movie does a great job of presenting their case. Denzel's son in the movie needs a heart transplant but under HMO rules, he isn't covered by the insurance. Under extreme pressure from both his wife and his own emotions, Denzel snaps and takes over the Emergency Room at the hospital at gun point. After this, the movie gets into a lot of clichés and routine dialogue that detract from the situation and the issues, not to mention Denzel's always great acting. As a result, the movie is good, but not as good as it should have been. A little more subtlety would have been good.