John Q. (DVD)

John Q isn't really that well known of a film. Often when discussing films with friends and I ask if they have heard of it the answer is no. I saw it on an off chance at the cinema. I took my Gran and we decided to watch it simply because Denzel Washington was in it. I hadn't heard of it before so I didn't know what it was about or what to expect. Both of us loved it and thought it was very moving. John Quincy Archibald (Denzel Washington) is a ...
...but only for a while. John is clearly a hard working man and over the breakfast table he tries to find a second job. He works in a factory but can only get 20 hours a weeks. Their son Michael (Daniel E. Smith) is very upbeat and ignores the tension. He jokes that if it were him he'd 'kick their butt'. He has a keen interest in bodybuilding and jokes around about that. Although they are having financial troubles they pull together as a family. John ...

salem_witch 23.05.2006 · Read full review
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Review of John Q. (DVD)

...Nick Cassavetes. ~ ~ John Quincy Archibald (John Q) is everyman’s idea of the average American. A blue-collar worker in a local metal foundry, he is happily married to his wife Denise, (well played by Kimberley Elise) and they have a cracker of a ten-year-old son called Mikey. (Daniel E. Smith) Money’s too tight to mention, due to the downturn in the US economy, but the family are struggling along as best they can, and are a strong, ...
...of Little League baseball, and John Q rushes him to the Emergency Room of his local hospital. Mikey’s heart is found to diseased and three times the normal size, and could give up entirely at any time, the only favourable prognosis being a heart transplant. No problem there, as the hospital has one of the country’s foremost transplant surgeons, Dr. Raymond Turner, (John Woods) on its books. No problem, that is, until it transpires that ...

the_mad_cabbie 28.12.2002 · Read full review
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Review of John Q. (DVD)

John Q. Archibald (Denzel Washington) is a blue collar factory worker, who, although is going through a hard time, still has the love of his wife Denise (Kimberly Elise) and their young son Mikey (Daniel E. Smith). When the factory cuts John's hours down by half, his financial problems start to mount up and he is forced to look for extra work before he loses everything. When Mikey collapses whilst playing baseball, they discover that he has a serious ...
...is sure to die. When John and Denise discover that their medical insurance won't cover the cost of the transplant, they plead to the hospitals administrator, Rebecca Payne (Anne Heche) and chief heart surgeon Dr. Turner (James Woods) to put Mikey at the top of the transfer list, but get little sympathy. With time running out, John does everything possible to raise the money for the transplant. With Mikey's condition rapidly deteriorating, John knows ...

christianfilmcritic 05.03.2006 · Read full review
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Review of John Q. (DVD)

...Your premise is this. John Archibald's (aka John Q - Denzyl Washington) son is diagnosed with a heart defect which makes it three times normal size...he'll die unless he has a transplant which is going to cost $250,000 as a minimum, with a $75,000 down payment. John works, has insurance, but it's worthless as his company has 'downgraded' him to a lower level which doesn't cover it. No one else will help either, there are no safety nets and despite ...
...refuse to give any leeway. John snaps, storms the hospital and takes hostages, vowing to kill them unless his son is put on the organ donor register straight away... The single more unsatisfying thing about John Q is that it is so divorced from reality that it's impossible to take seriously. We are meant to believe that one man, who has no military training etc. can take over a hospital wing and hold it without any kind of resistance from the amassed ...

wampyrii 07.09.2002 · Read full review
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Review of John Q. (DVD)

John Q is so syrupy in places that I could almost taste the cloying sweetness. Thats not to say that I hated it and stopped the video recorder, it was watchable but it suffered from being predictable and sickly. John Archibald (Denzel Washington) is a hard working family man who is devoted to his wife and son. However, his is not a rich family, he works in a factory and his wife works in a grocery store, but they are a happy loving family. His ...
...heart transplant. To their horror John and his wife Denise discover that John’s work have recently changed his health insurance to a cheaper version that will cover him for only $20,000 worth of medical treatment Michael’s transplant will cost $250,000. This is where I started to have some problems with the film. The Archibalds are told by (Ann Heche) the person in charge of hospital finances that they should be thinking about quality of life for ...

ricci 08.03.2003 · Read full review
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Review of John Q. (DVD)

...an expert. Far from it. John Q is a 2002 film that focuses on the disadvantages of not being medically covered for something, over in the States, as Denzel Washington's John Q Archibald fights with every fibre of his being to save his son's life against all odds. Director Nick Cassavetes gives us a powerful film that focuses on health care, corruption, pen-pushers and the power of love. When Mike Archibald (Daniel E Smith) collapses from near heart ...
...and Mike's health deteriorates rapidly, John takes the ER and its patients and staff hostage, demanding that Mike be put on the list and the heart be replaced. In many ways, the film doesn't do anything special. The emergence of Ray Liotta and Robert Duvall as the police bigwigs assigned to negotiate with John are curiously placed, seeming to be a strange pair of actors to be cast. I wasn't impressed. Anne Heche plays hospital administrator Rebecca ...

pmcds 31.03.2009 · Read full review
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Review of John Q. (DVD)

John Q Archibold (Denzel Washington), an ordinary man working in a factory, struggles to keep his family intact as the strains of a weak economy reduce the hours his firm can employ him. Not only does this have a detrimental effect on his immediate lifestyle, but it also has a profound effect when his son becomes seriously ill and requires a heart transplant. When finding out that his health insurance no longer covers the heart surgery, and realizing ...
...emergency room of the hospital, John Q takes several unwitting hostages and demands that the hospital save his son. Battling against a veteran negotiator (Robert Duvall) and a hot-tempered police chief (Ray Liotto) John Q vows to save his son regardless of the consequences to himself and his hostages. The movie is a touching one that highlights the need for reforms within the American health care system. Making a profound statement about the inhumanity ...

SimonCook 23.12.2002 · Read full review
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Review of John Q. (DVD)

...The Story: John Q is the story of an ordinary family with a steady job and all he is interested in is providing the best for his wife and son. So when he is told that his son is terminally ill with a heart defect and he needs a transplant now he asks for the operation believing that his medical insurance (USA has no NHS) will cover him but he finds out that his insurance is not valid he is faced with a desperate challenge to find the money for ...
...paying job he cant. So to get the operation done in the end he has to resort to taking the ER and its staff hostage and demands that they perform the life saving operation. In my view Denzel Washington is one of the best actors around and deserved his best actor academy award this year for his role as Alonzo 'bent cop' Harris in Training Day, which is another film I urge you to watch. As usual in this film he performs his role flawlessly. This ...

andrew007 04.12.2002 · Read full review
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Review of John Q. (DVD)

...familiar ground as family man John Quincy Archibald. John is a working class man who’s having trouble paying the bills, despite his wife Denise (Kimberly Elise) also out to work in a local supermarket. As more and more jobs are being handed over to cheap Mexican labour, the work at John’s factory is exceptionally slow at the moment, to the point of the bank repossessing the car. To make things even worse, John’s nine year son, Mike (Daniel E. Smith) ...
...paid up front. Money that John and his wife just can’t afford themselves. When John discovers that his insurance company doesn’t come up to scratch and won’t pay up, desperation ensues to pay the $75,000 himself. After being refused by numerous aid centres because he’s ‘not qualified’ the local community pitches in with donations and other such, John even sells off any luxury household items he once had, but still it’s not enough. With the hospital ...

DarkMark 20.10.2004 · Read full review
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Review of John Q. (DVD)

...plays a working joe named John Q whose family is down on their luck. They just had their car reposed and barely have enough to get by.However things go from bad to worse as John’s son, has an accident in a baseball game, which results in him going to the hospital. We learn through the rather rude hospital staff at Hope Memorial Hospital that the child has a bad heart, rather he has an abnormal heart. Q thinks everything will be allright but then ...
...to make an example of John Q and could care less about hisdying son....how touching. The Dvd features for John Q are great including: -Commentary by Nick himself on the film and it's impact - A featurette on the making of the film itself -Trailer -And probably most important feature a special documentary into the whole state of the health care system. Quite intriguing. The whole system is in shambles as one person in the movies says "over ...

Gamedude 06.07.2004 · Read full review
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Review of John Q. (DVD)

...---------SYNOPSIS Denzel stars as John Q. Archibald is a factory worker who tries to make ends meat to look after his wife and his son Michael. Whilst playing baseball one day his son mysteriously collapses on the field and is rushed straight to hospital. It transpires that Michael needs an emergency heart transplant, without which its certain death. When John Q. presents his medical insurance card, the insurance which he has does not cover this ...
...out John promises he will do whatever he can to keep his son alive and rallies around friends, neighbours and his community who donate funds. These funds however dont cover the operation as the longer Michael is in hospital the more the bill mounts up. John enraged takes the surgeon and the emergency room hostage and the fun begins. The cops arrive and so do the tv news crews. John becomes a hero and a criminal in this action packed movie about ...

honey2cm 24.01.2006 · Read full review
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Review of John Q. (DVD)

...few days to live). So john Q (father) thinks he has insurance for this kind of thing, and says sure i'll go ahead with it....only to find out he had no insurance after all. Hospital wants 120.000 dollars now or they are going to throw his son out. Pretty unbelievable stuff, it really makes you sick thinking that money is more important than saving someones life. The american goverment can surely aford to pay for these sort of surgerys, i mean it ...
...film goes on to show john selling everything he owns...trying different ways to raise money to save his sons life....only to find out his son has been discharged...even thou he paid them 20,000 the day before( i was really angry!). so john Q was of course really angry and the only way he could save his sons life is by taking the hospital hostage. this was a great film, i must say that the tissues must be ready in advance!lol but you know that ...

gudheart 24.08.2004 · Read full review
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Review of John Q. (DVD)

...than life. The main character John Q, played by Denzil Washington is a hardworking loving father of your average happy little boy, it then all goes wrong when the little collapses with a serious heart problem and will ultimately die if he doesn't have a transplant. You then get the twist in the story where the father doesn't have medical insurance and because of work shortages he can't pay the astronomical price. You then see the heartbreaking helplessness ...
...boy. Out of sheer desperation John takes the ER hostage, with several patients all with different personalities and ailments, throughout the film you see the hostages growing to like John as they begin to understand what exactly he's fighting for. The next twist is his son has a rare blood type so you end up seeing the soon to be donor dying in a car crash, which is quite a sad twist I think. Anyway eventually because of media coverage the hospital ...

lj54 21.03.2004 · Read full review
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Review of John Q. (DVD)

...while playing baseball, and then John taking the hospital staff hostage in order to get Mikey on the heart transplant waiting list. The plot is quite original because of he fact that it is in a hospital that the hostage situation takes place. It is dramatic irony that a criminal act takes place somewhere that would normally be safe. I feel that it is one of Denzel Washington's best films because John is prepared to do anything to save his son , ...

danrockett89 03.05.2005 · Read full review
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Review of John Q. (DVD)

John Q is a film i thoroughly enjoyed. It was a heart warmng film about a father who is played by Denzel Washington who goes to great lenghts to save the life of his child. The film keeps you interested the whole way through to the climax point. I loved the ending when John goes to the hospital in his final bid to save his son by holding other patients and doctors hostage until his sons life is saved. Denzel Washington is a truely amazing actor who ...
...through and that you can see why he goes to such desperate measures for his son. This a film that many people would enjoy greatly as it is very emotional and could make many cry. It is a hidden gem. I didn't want to spoil this film for anyone who hasn't seen it yet so I tried to keep this review as short as possible!! ...

irishlad20 24.07.2008 · Read full review
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Review of John Q. (DVD)