Review of John Q (2002) by 30Cents — 10 Aug 2015

Denzel Washington is no stranger to cinema, with notable movies he has done in the past that includes "Malcolm X", "He Got Game", and "Training Day". He is a man of steel for his most famous roles; for collaborating with director Spike Lee on multiple occasions, and even starring with A-list actors in a handful of his films. The same does not go for "John Q", who is a father of a son who is dying and needs a transplant as soon as possible.

The movie starts out rather keen, with John Quincy Archibald (Denzel Washington) and his wife Denise (Kimberly Elise) see their son collapse at a baseball game. Their son is immediately taken to the hospital; it is not long until they find out their son has an enlarged heart and needs a heart transplant. Unfortunately for John and Denise, they cannot afford it. Being the heroes they are, John and Denise break down and are afraid they will lose their sons life. John's anger and rage comes out of him as he threatens a hospital, he locks down the hospital with eleven people with him inside the building.

The whole "Dog Day Afternoon" scenario of the movie is the hostages themselves. They are all forced to follow John's orders and stay with him until his son's heart gets transplanted. Denzel Washington looks like he wants to play like Al Pacino's role from "Dog Day Afternoon", just looking very closely will become obvious. A handful of supporting roles come into play about thirty minutes into the movie, with actor Robert Duvall playing the chief of the local police station. We also get a few cameos by Ray Liotta and James Woods who only appear in a few shots unable to save the movie from more catastrophe.

John Q is a likable character, along with his son and his wife Denise. Unfortunately, the other characters do not help and are only there just to keep the film reel rolling for its nearly two hour running time. Another thing that does not help is the screenplay, this story has been done before in previous movies where there have been hostages in a building or someone kidnapping. There is simply nothing original in this story, even if the film makers were trying to hide it.

I did like Denzel Washington's strong performance, but I felt that the supporting actors were just there and not to actually try to make the movie better. Maybe this will find a perfect audience for some movie-goers who are looking to find a good-bad movie on television late at night. If that is not the case with some, then I do not know what is.