John Q | | Cast : | Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall | | Director : | Nick Cassavetes | | Studio : | New Line Home Entertainment | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound | | Released Date : | February 15, 2002 | | DVD Released Date : | September 14, 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 30, 2005 | | Summary | A very powerful and remarquble movie | Content
 | John Q is one of my favorite Denzel Washington movies. Denzel Washington is in my opinion one the best actors ever. He's so powerful with his expressions, movements, tones, and sentences.
This movie is a beautiful movie that is very sad and remarquable. It's about a factory worker played by Denzel Washington who has a nice loving wife and son. And then one day, while playing baseball, his young son collapses. They take him to the hospital and find out that he'll die if he doesn't get a heart transplant, a highly costly operation. And to make matters worse, the factory worker's (named Jonh Archibald) insurance won't cover it. And since they can't afford it, John Archibald is forced to desperate measures. He holds up the hospital, locking himself in. He then orders for his son to get a transplant. The movie is very toughing and wondeful with great perfromances by Denzel Washington, James Woods, Robert Duvall and Ray Liotta. While in the hospital, John meets new people that are also trapped in. He meets a married couple with the wife pregnant, a spanish mother whose baby is sick, a weird couple with a hurt lady, a security cop and more. The movie is a great ride and will make you cheer and cry. While everyone in the hospital and out loves John, the government doesn't. And they send snipers and more to get the job done. This is a must see and is a trully beautiful story. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 12, 2005 | | Summary | How to make an advertisment look like a movie | Content
| This is a ridiculous movie length advertisment for national health care disguised as a movie. Stick a good actor in it and it looks even more like a move. Steal a plot from another movie (i.e. Dog Day Afternoon) and it gets even closer to looking like a movie.
But the smart ones know better. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 17, 2005 | | Summary | Dog Day Afternoon meets Plan 9 From Outter Space | Content
| John Q. is an emotional thriller that definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat... at times as a tear jerker, but at other times laughing at the ridiculous directing, scriptwriting and sometimes acting... There are some scenes you can see coming from a mile away, ridiculous melodramatics... and a blatantly (yet superficial) propagandic message...
Wow, when was the last time YOU got to walk into a TV studio and TELL your story to the investigative reporter on the set ? - - and oh yes... JOHN Q's bearded blue collar friend was - - well, quite Blue Collar... Duval pretty much played the same cheerfully cynical rational minded cop he did in a similar victim of society gone lunatic film (Falling DOwn), there's the cold hard hospital administrator, the jerky self righteous doctor, narcisistic chief of police against the gung-ho local cops vs. the trigger happy sharp shooters... "I got da mayor on the line..." - - "Tell 'em to hold back ! hold back ! Don't shoot til I tell you..." - - "I love you Daddy !" and oh how the list goes on. - - James Wood, a GREAT actor almost seems to realize the sillyness of the film during the DRAMATIC change of heart sequence which seems something straight out of a Saturday night live spoof... "But doctor, you could get disbarred or lose your license," and Wood answers something in a ridiculously flat tone as if he's really trying to say, "Oh God, when am I going to get off this set...?" and then there are all the other great classic Hollywood (ridiculously unbelievable) close calls with sharp shooters, loaded guns, calls that don't get through at the last moment... People running desperate AGAINST TIME (cue dramatic incidental music...) In the end, as a message film, it falls flat... I mean, preaching to the choir is one thing (we ALL agree the health care system is messed up and we've all heard the figures and hey, yeah, let's go and fill out our organ donor cards, brush our teeth twice a day and eat our spinach), but beyond preaching to the choir, it doesn't really offer any other deeper insight or sparker debate beyond, "oh how cute and little the Webster like little Kid is..." and maybe making you think "What if it were my son ?" Heck yea, I might do it... So how abotu a dramatic TRIAL OF BILLY JACK type ending where Duvall says that you have a choice "Die here, or tell your story in court to the world..." -- Uh, uh... we can shoot you or you can go to jail... make your choice... In the meantime, the film just goes ridiculously overboard to touch everybody, offend nobody, and play into the mindset of an Oprah Winfrey Audience, with yet, a touch of an ABC Afterschool Special with a few jarring moments (such as the SFX on a realistic but overdramatized heart surgery.) This film would have been great paradied on STRANGERS WITH CANDY ! - - No doubt however, one should mention that Denzil Washington did put on a heck of a performance, letting the waterworks through on virtually every scene and playing a not so bright average Joe that everybody loves, just wants to save his son and has commanded a hospital ward full of... well the morbidly obese body guard, the scared sh*tless nurse, the wise *ss pimp and his girlfriend, the witty street smart black guy, and the lady about to have a baby any moment... in other words, ample comedic relief... and yes, you can smell that they're going to bond from miles a way... and as the hostage situation plays out all the elements and cliches from all the other films of that nature play out... minus the Billy Jack clenched fist salutes as he rides off into the sunset... - - Still despite this, the film did keep me glued to my seat and was a fun and exciting watch... Perhaps one day it might even be made in a more coherent manner and not try to create the ultimate feel good/feel bad/human message/police stand off/ triumph of human nature blah blah blah film. In the meantime, I think I'm going to go outside and breath a fresh of air and try to remember some of the more poignant lines. I think Robert Duval at one point may have mumbled something about faith (sometime between "cut" and getting his donut...) |
| Rating | | | Date | May 09, 2005 | | Summary | What happens when you push a man to far...GREAT MOVIE! | Content
| The fact is, until this movie, many people did not realize the state of affairs that our health coverage in this country was in. Nothing short of a NAZI system of segregation, A man is told his son will die because he cannot afford the operation.
A national health care crisis in the United States yields this tense drama from screenwriter James Kearns and director Nick Cassavetes, who experienced a real-life dilemma with his daughter's congenital heart disease that mirrors the one in this film. Denzel Washington stars as John Q. Archibald, a factory worker facing financial hardship as a result of reduced hours in his workplace. When his young son, Michael (Daniel E. Smith), is stricken during a baseball game, Smith and his wife, Denise (Kimberly Elise), discover that their child is in need of an emergency heart transplant. Although the Archibalds have health insurance, they are informed by hospital administrator Rebecca Payne (Anne Heche) that their policy doesn't cover such an expensive procedure. Unable to raise the money himself, John persuades the hospital's compassionate cardiac surgeon, Dr. Raymond Turner (James Woods), to waive his lofty fee, but is still left with too much of a financial burden to bear. With no recourse but to take his son home to die, John snaps and holds the staff and patients of the hospital's emergency room hostage at gunpoint. John is soon a media hero, the focus of intense news coverage, even as police chief Gus Monroe (Ray Liotta) and hostage negotiator Frank Grimes (Robert Duvall) try to resolve the situation before it leads to bloodshed. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 07, 2005 | | Summary | VERY DRAMATIC! | Content
| Denzel diserved another oscar for this performance! This movie
shows you how much insurance companys really suck, and how money
is more important than a human life! If this movie doesn't put
tears in your eyes, you're not human! I won't write a book for
a review like some people. I'll just say, this is a great movie,
that everyone should see. |
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