John Q. (2002)

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details
Studio: New Line Cinema
Rating: PG-13
Release Date: Feb 15, 2002
Running Time: 110 mins.
Country Of Origin: United States
synopsis
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 both want to bring a swift end to the stand-off.
cast + crew
Director
John Quincy Archibald
Lieutenant Frank Grimes
Denise Archibald
Rebecca Payne
Doctor Raymond Turner
Lester
Chief Monroe
Tuck Lampley
Mitch
screenplay
dialogue/stage editor
Screenplay
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Producer
Co-Producer
Co-Producer
Co-Producer
Executive Producer
Executive Producer
Executive Producer
Co-Executive Producer
Co-Executive Producer
reviews
Source
February 13, 2002
John Q is a botch job, even though it's crawling with Oscar winners and nominees. Denzel Washington, fresh from his triumph in Training Day, stars as a blue-collar father holding a hospital hostage so his young son can get a heart transplant. Robert Duvall plays a hostage negotiator, and James Woods is the surgeon forced to operate at gunpoint. Happy paychecks, guys. What looked like a thriller with a social conscience - those HMO bastards! - is a subpar episode of ER. Working from a trite… Continued
Source

Denzel Washington is Everyman, letting his hair get unruly, packing on some un-Hollywood-star inches around the middle and wearing nothing but cheap hats and jeans. Despite some silly screenwriting, Washington manages to raise John above soap-opera dramatics and weak polemics (''The enemy is us--we shot down national healthcare'') with genuine emotion and convincing resolve, but barely. James Woods is perfect as the sniveling, smarmy and supercilious doctor, but, unfortunately, he and the rest… Continued