Starring: Obba Babatunde, Troy Beyer, Kevin Connolly, Shera Danese, Eddie Griffin Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC Label: New Line Home Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: July 16, 2002 Running Time: 112 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 2002
Description: Academy Award winner Denzel Washington stars in this powerful drama about a father who takes extreme measures to save his son's life when his insurance company refuses to cover his heart transplant surgery.
DVD Features: Audio Commentary DVD ROM Features DVD ROM exclusive web site Deleted Scenes Documentaries Theatrical Trailer
Amazon.com: It's impossible to walk away from John Q. without thinking about the film that could have been. The pathetic state of health care in the U.S. and the desperate behavior it engenders is not only worthy but edgy material; no doubt director Nick Cassavetes (She's So Lovely) and Denzel Washington (as well as Robert Duvall, Ray Liotta, James Woods, and Anne Heche) were drawn to the provocative pitch. The only snag is that John Q. has about as much edge as an after-school special. Washington plays John Quincy Archibald, a hard-working factory worker whose house stands to be repossessed and whose lovely wife (Kimberly Elise) is at her wits' end. When his extremely cute son collapses while rounding the bases in a Little League game, things go from bad to worse. John Q. takes a downtown Chicago emergency room hostage when he learns that the heart transplant his son needs won't be performed because his health care doesn't cover it. The action-drama that ensues--replete with one-liners, stilted debate, inept snipers, and multiple references to O.J. Simpson's white Bronco--is so littered with clichés that the issues, timely ones, get lost in a crescendo of melodrama. --Fionn Meade
Denzel At His Best John Q is a simple film that will please the crowd. Denzel Washingtion is in top form as usual as are Ray Lilota and Robert Duvall. The direction by Nick Cassavates is some of his finest since She's So Lovely. After watching this film I asked myself would I do the same thing for anyone I loved and the answer is yes,
Criminal or father or the year? Mike Archibald (Daniel E. Smith) seemed perfectly healthy until he collapsed at a baseball game. He's taken to Hope Memorial Hospital where Dr. Raymond Turner (James Wood) advises the family the child needs a heart transplant.
Unfortunately, John Q. Archibald (Denzel Washington) has an HMO and the surgery isn't covered. Despite the family being barely barely able to survive financially, they don't qualify for Medicare. John hocks everything he owns and pays the hospital a hard raised $6,000, they're going to release Mike. Mike's Mom (Kimberly Elise) tells John to DO SOMETHING.
The only thing John can think of to stop his son being released to go home and die is take the hospital ER hostage. He takes a gun--which he has not yet sold--and does just that.
Everyone has an agenda in this. The Police Chief (Liotta) wants to appease the mayor in an election year. The press want a story that will rival OJ's escapade with the white Bronco. The other patients in the ER want to get their own healthcare issues taken care of. Hostage negotiator Frank Grimes (Robert Duvall) wants everyone out alive.
"John Q" is one of the most compelling films I've seen in a long time because the story is entirely real. This is one of Denzel Washington's, James Wood's and Duvall's best performances to date. The story will have you in tears and cheering at points--and hopefully asking some meaningful questions about your own healthcare coverage.
Rebecca Kyle, May 2008
One of Denzel's finest performances I remember when this movie came out there was a lot of criticism towards it. I can honestly say that the only good things I heard about about it was these positive reviews on Amazon. I was determined to see it and I was finally able to see it. Guess what? It isnt as bad as these critics say it is.
Premise: John Q Archibald's son passes out during a baseball game. Once tooken to the hospital John and his wife find out that their son has an enlarged heart. John goes through great leangths to get money just to get his son's name on the heart donor's list only to get screwed over by the same hospital that was supposed to look out for him. Down on his last luck, John Q holds the whole hospital hostage at gunpoint until his son's medical needs are met.
Opinion: This movie is very touching as well as a sad testament to the issue involving healthcare. Many people bash the movie because they figure that the way John Q handled his son's situation was extreme but if you were in his shoes and handled that situation with passiveness then you deserve to get bullied by these corporate warthogs for being docile! Everybody with the exception of the ham that beats his girl fits into this movie perfectly. Eddie Griffin provided brief moments of levity, James Woods was great as the doctor who had to be forced into comprimising and John Q is one of Denzel's finest performances. The movie has a happy as well as a sad ending but I wont spoil it for those of you who have yet to see it. They say that the message of the movie was hammered onto the audience but in a world full of proud-to-be-stupid people, the only way to get a message so serious across is to beat it into their thick heads. I'll part by saying that not every movie that is critically panned is bad and not every critically acclaimed movie is good. See it for yourself.
John Q - Denzel Washington A WONDERFUl movie -very touching - very inspirational, very Denzel Washington - GREAT actor!
Strong Drama John Quincy Archibald kidnap sentence probably put him jail for 20 years plus. The lawyers downplayed the kidnapping charge by saying his sentence would be two to three years. John's son will receive an emergency transplant and live and John will spend most of his life in prison.
John Q son's transplant in the movie cost $250,000 and John Qs insurance covered 20k, HHMO, 2 tier castrophic event. The hospital received 22k from John with the expectation of 75k before putting him on a list.
The Health care management looked cold and unsympathic to the uninsured patient. HHMO looks like a cost cutting plan, an alternative to the rising cost of health care.
The cost of Health care proportion to wages was disproportionate. John Q earning 18k a year and work 20 hours a day. If a person has an emergency and no insurance, the hospital stablizes but does not offer futher treatment. Hospital Administrator, Rebecca Payne tells Frank Grimes, "there are 50 million uninsured Americans and I have to decide and we can't take care of all of them. I have to decide who receives care."
Frank encourages John to have faith, telling him faith is believing in something you don't know; Frank tells John that he will either go to jail or die, if he does surrender; Chief of police, Gus Monroe order a sniper hit on John that injuries John but gives John an opportunity to capture the sniper; and Frank tells John that the crowds don't matter and that there is only him and John. John Q story is a tragedy, a desparate man, a people's hero, a secret pawn of national media, and a blue collar worker. John extreme solution saved his son's life, allowed him to keep his promise to find a new heart for his son, and invoke fierce loyalty from his wife.
In the last scene John believes he must kill himself to save his son, giving his heart for the transplant. John tells his son to "stay away from the bad things in life", "stand up for important things", "and to know he will always be with his son, in his heart."
The stories ending is anti-climatic, whereas, "Pursuit of Happiness" inspires the viewer to believe in prevailing through the system. The anti-climatic theme is that the "Health care system is broke" and will continue failing to meet the basic needs of average people, perhaps, a voice of discontent that costs are favoring the privileged. John tells his son to grab as much money as possible, telling him that everything is better with money. Maybe someday, the return of the country doctor will make sense as HHMO become more expensive and health coverage more difficult to purchase.
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