Synopsis
John Quincy Archibald is a father and husband whose son is diagnosed with an enlarged heart and then finds out he cannot receive a transplant because HMO insurance will not cover it. Therefore, he decides to take a hospital full of patients hostage until the hospital puts his son's name on the donor's list.
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Cast
- Denzel WashingtonJohn Quincy Archibald
- James WoodsDr. Raymond Turner
- Kimberly EliseDenise Archibald
- Robert DuvallLt. Frank Grimes
- Shawn HatosyMitch Quigley
- Eddie GriffinLester Matthews
- Kevin ConnollySteve Maguire
- Ethan SupleeGuard Max Conlin
- Ray LiottaChief Gus Monroe
- Anne HecheRebecca Payne
Recommendations
- 80
Los Angeles Times
An all-stops-out rabble-rouser that hurls a broadside at America's medical insurance crisis. - 63
Philadelphia Inquirer
This is an A-list cast toiling on a C-list screenplay. - 50
New York Post
Not a movie but a live-action agitprop cartoon so shameless and coarse, it's almost funny. - 50
Christian Science Monitor
It's as forgettable as they come. - 50
Slate
Denzel Washington is so powerfully earnest an actor that you never want to laugh at him -- even when you ought to be in stitches. - 50
Entertainment Weekly
The movie could have used a brain transplant. It doesn't explore injustice -- it just exploits it. - 30
The New Yorker
Falls below even minimal standards of dramatic decency. John Q is a trashy, opportunistic piece of pop demagoguery. [4 Mar 2002, p. 90] - 25
Portland Oregonian
Washington can't save a picture that spends so much time worrying about a heart that it loses its head.
