John Q
New Line Cinema | Release Date: February 15, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
30
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
15
Negative:
14
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
An all-stops-out rabble-rouser that hurls a broadside at America's medical insurance crisis. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve Davis
It's hard to imagine how anyone could remain dry-eyed while watching the scene in which John Q. tries to cram in a lifetime of fatherhood advice in a goodbye speech to his son. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
This is an A-list cast toiling on a C-list screenplay. Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia Puig
One can excuse the movie's missteps and melodramatic moments in the greater interest of the strong statement it makes about our health care system. Read full review
50
New York PostJonathan Foreman
Not a movie but a live-action agitprop cartoon so shameless and coarse, it's almost funny. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
It's as forgettable as they come. Read full review
50
SlateDavid Edelstein
Denzel Washington is so powerfully earnest an actor that you never want to laugh at him -- even when you ought to be in stitches. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
The movie could have used a brain transplant. It doesn't explore injustice -- it just exploits it. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
Like a tone-deaf singer at a benefit concert, John Q. is a bad movie appearing on behalf of a good cause. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
More hokey than heartfelt. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMark Caro
Waste in the health care system is deplorable, but waste on the movie screen isn't so great either. Read full review
50
Film ThreatMichael Dequina
With its simplistic, didactic approach, the presence of a top-flight ensemble is the only thing separating John Q from your average TV movie of the week. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
Washington's fire and righteous anger can only do so much, and the token grit amounts to a few grains of sand in the sentimental machinery. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
It's not honest, and it's certainly no solution. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Turns out to be hopelessly mediocre -- a poorly scripted, preachy fable that forgets about unfolding a coherent, believable story in its zeal to spread propaganda. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Gripping, if manipulative and somewhat preposterous, drama. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeJay Carr
A well-intentioned but self-defeatingly manipulative film that amounts to an impassioned commercial for national health care. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
The movie's tone and plot twists are so ludicrously overwrought that even Washington's admirably restrained performance -- can't rescue it from its own excesses. Read full review
40
L.A. WeeklyJohn Patterson
A coercive script by James Kearns, and some middling direction by Nick Cassavetes, can't rob the movie of an undeniable, headlong crowd-pleasing power. Read full review
38
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The movie goes awry from the opening shots. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The kind of movie Mad magazine prays for. It is so earnest, so overwrought and so wildly implausible that it begs to be parodied. Read full review
30
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Falls below even minimal standards of dramatic decency. John Q is a trashy, opportunistic piece of pop demagoguery. [4 Mar 2002, p. 90]
30
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
Plays less like an exposé than a piece of exploitation, its clear divide between good and evil allowing no breathing room for real drama. Read full review
25
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Washington can't save a picture that spends so much time worrying about a heart that it loses its head. Read full review
20
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
So lacking in shame that it finally seems laughable. Read full review
20
VarietyTodd McCarthy
A shamelessly manipulative commercial on behalf of national health insurance. Read full review
20
Village VoiceEd Park
Washington is in default dignified mode here. He capably embodies the hero's transformation from doughy dad to man of action, amid the movie's shameless button-pushing and cheap religious overlay. Read full review
20
New Times (L.A.)Andy Klein
When emotion is called for, Cassavetes drags out every tear-jerking moment beyond the point of tolerability. Read full review
20
Washington PostStephen Hunter
This movie, written in crayon by James Kearns, is too dumb to come up with a way of defeating the system by using its own rules. Read full review
10
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Is it possible none of these actors read the script before they signed on? Were New Line executives perhaps too hung up on hobbits to notice how whacked out this movie is? Read full review
10
Rolling StonePeter Travers
John Q. is as fake as that tear, an exploitative mess trying to pass as social activism. Read full review
10
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Leaves you feeling as if you've been alternately milked and bitch-slapped. Its manipulation is so clumsy and obvious -- and, ultimately, it goes so far astray from its original guiding principles -- that it leaves you feeling dangled and dazed. Read full review
0
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Every so often a movie transcends stupidity and soars into the empyrean of true idiocy. John Q. is such a movie.
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