I like Denzel Washington. I like Robert Duvall. So why don’t I like 2002’s John Q.?

Perhaps because it proves that terrific talent can make poor choices. This crass and manipulative drama leaves me utterly cold despite strong performers and an intriguing storyline.

Factory worker John Q. Archibald (Washington) hits hard times. He loses half his hours at the job, so he and wife Denise (Kimberly Elise) run into financial problems.

These intensify when son Mike (Daniel E. Smith) collapses at a baseball game and they discover he requires a heart transplant. This will cost $250,000 but John’s insurance won’t cover it.

As exemplified by administrator Rebecca Payne (Anne Heche) and chief cardiologist Dr. Turner (Woods), the hospital shows little sympathy. John contacts every possible source of assistance but gets little help, and eventually the hospital plans to discharge Mike.

As his wife screams at him to “do something”, John finally reaches the breaking point. With a gun in his hands, he holds Turner and others hostage in the emergency room and that starts a stand-off between John and the police, led by negotiator Frank Grimes (Duvall) and Chief Monroe (Ray Liotta).

Because I’d like to say something positive about John Q., I will acknowledge that its heart is in the right place. Health care in America clearly suffers from a myriad of problems, and no one seems able to adequately address these.

People get screwed left and right by the system, and I expect the situation will further deteriorate before it improves. Not many feature films tackle this sort of issue, so I applaud the filmmakers’ attempts to do so.

If only they hadn’t created such a brain-dead and knee-jerk movie! This one’s for all the Americans who love to rail against bureaucracy and big government, since we see what a mess all the red tape and rules have made of things.

Of course, the only way a kid like Mike could get adequate service would be to expand governmental involvement in healthcare, but the movie ignores that element. Power to the people, baby! If you don’t get your way, threaten to kill someone!

Instead of the measured character drama it could have been, John Q decides to go down the thriller path. The clock ticks towards Mike’s impending demise, and the movie uses a heart rate meter to conveniently count down toward his looming death.

The bureaucrats who won’t operate on Mike due to the lack of insurance coverage need moustaches to twirl and the picture will be complete. They get little room to become anything other than stock baddies - at least until the end, when they nonsensically experience complete changes of heart.

On the other side, we’re forced to totally empathize with John, and there’s little room for discussion. Never mind the illegality and immorality of his surgery at gunpoint: he’s supposed to be our hero and that’s that.

Unfortunately, the baldly manipulative characters don’t always work the way the filmmakers might like. I think this applies mostly to Elise’s turn as wife Denise.

Despite all of the pain she experiences with her ailing son, she actually comes across as rather unsympathetic much of the time. The filmmakers want so badly to continually dump on John that they unwittingly make her part of the problem.

Denise directly spurs the kidnapping with her shrill commands for John to “do something”, and she also badgers him unmercifully when he runs into employment problems. For one of the lead “good guys”, she really seems like a cold and unlikable personality.

Not a single character in John Q feels like anything other than a stereotype. Duvall’s Grimes offers the standard grizzled vet being bumped out by the cocky younger folks, as represented by the stupidly brash and irresponsible Chief Monroe.

The TV reporter exists as nothing more than a better-looking version of Dick Thornburg (William Atherton) in Die Hard, and the detained patients in the emergency room fare no better. There’s a smug and racist rich kid who beats his girlfriend, a Latino woman who speaks no English, and a self-righteous resident. Eddie Griffin’s streetwise Black dude Lester actually asks for a bucket of chicken at one point!

That becomes only one of many moments during which I could scarcely believe my ears. To saddle an actor as talented as Duvall with lines like “there’s only two ways out of here: jail or dead!” must violate any number of human rights regulations.

And poor Washington gets many of his own inanities to spew. At one point, John actually yells “take my heart!” as the solution to the problem.

Just when I thought the movie couldn’t get any more absurd and ridiculous, it finds a way to sink even lower. It just seems dumber and dumber with every passing moment.

For example, John tries to hide his identity from the authorities when he simply calls himself “John Q”, but what point does this serve? Seconds later he demands transplant surgery for his kid - he didn’t think the cops would eventually figure out which kid was his?

The actors try to muddle through this mess as well as they can, but all the talent in the world can’t make this pile palatable. John Q consists of nothing more than emotional manipulation paired with moralizing speechifying.

The movie hammers home its message in a blunt and moronic way that does nothing more than insult the viewer. Maybe someone enjoys this kind of exploitative slop, but I actively disliked the movie.

Bizarre trivia note: Simpsons fans will recognize the name “Frank Grimes”, as that character appeared on an episode during the 1996-97 season. Frank Grimes came to work at the power plant and literally frustrated himself to death due to the fact Homer gets away with his rampant incompetence.

Coincidence? Probably, but the naming of the Duvall character amused me nonetheless.

John Q appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This felt like a decent but dated image.

Sharpness varied, and most of the movie exhibited reasonable delineation. However, more than a few shot leaned a bit soft and indistinct.

I witnessed no signs of jaggies or moiré effects, but light edge haloes crept into the movie at times. Grain seemed adequate and print flaws remained limited to a handful of small specks.

The movie’s palette tended to go with greens/blues or ambers. The colors looked adequate but generally seemed somewhat bland.

Blacks felt somewhat inky and shadows appeared fine, though without great resolution. Ultimately this turned into a watchable presentation but not one that stood out as memorable.

Although I figured this would become a quiet character drama, the movie’s Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio offered surprisingly active fare. Music showed very good spread and involvement, as the score blended nicely into all five channels and became quite engrossing much of the time.

The effects also moved around the room with unexpected vividness. Much of the audio remained anchored within the front channels, but those speakers showed good breadth and delineation.

The surrounds also came to life neatly during many scenes, such as those with helicopters or sirens. The rear channels didn’t overwhelm the action but they complimented it well.

Audio quality worked fine. Lines remained crisp and easily intelligible I noticed no signs of edginess.

Music worked best, as the score seemed vibrant and lively, with good bass response and clear highs. Effects felt acceptably clean and accurate.

The entire package packed a nice punch, as low-end consistently appeared deep and tight. The audio worked well for a story of this sort.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the DVD version? Both showed similar soundscapes but the lossless BD audio boasted greater range and clarity.

In terms of visuals, the BD felt better defined and more vivid. That said, it didn’t take much to surpass a circa 2002 DVD, so although the BD fared better, it still came with lackluster picture quality.

As we shift to extras, we open with an audio commentary from director Nick Cassavetes, screenwriter James Kearns, producer Mark Burg, director of photography Rogier Stoffers, and actress Kimberly Elise.

All five seem to have been recorded together for this running, screen-specific track. However, occasions occurred during which I questioned if some parts were taped separately and then inserted.

Whatever the case may be, the five offer a generally engaging discussion of the film. On the negative side, periodic empty spaces pop up, especially during the second half.

Some major blank spots appear in the film’s last hour, and I also think the piece suffers from too much praise. That tendency seems inevitable for this sort of commentary, but it feels a little heavy at times.

Despite those issues, the commentary usually works nicely, as the participants cover a good array of topics. Cassavetes discusses his personal motivations behind the film, and we also learn about some acting moments and other issues from the set.

A little technical information appears as well, such as stylistic choices. The commentary for John Q doesn’t provide a terrific experience, but it examines the movie fairly well.

Also alongside the movie, we get a Fact Track. This text commentary uses the subtitle area as it provides small factoids that appear throughout the flick.

I like this kind of feature but it manifests itself awfully sporadically here. The facts involved relate to health care, insurance, hostages, the law and other notions such as that.

This mans we don’t get tidbits about the production, as the track instead looks at topics connected to the story. Some useful details emerge but they appear too infrequently to make this a good text commentary.

Another running component, Focus Points provide short clips that the viewer can choose to watch as the film progresses. We get 46 of these, and they span between 21 seconds and nine minutes, 33 seconds for a total of 74 minutes, 52 seconds.

Across these, we see behind the scenes footage, auditions, cut scenes, a trailer and soundbites. We hear from Burg, Elise, Cassavetes, UCLA Clinical Heart Failure Program co-director Michele Hamilton, UCLA Division of Pediatric Nephrology head Robert Ettenger, UCLA Pediatric Heart Transplant Program clinical social worker Nancy Hayes, Physicians for a National Health Program’s Jennifer Malin and Jon Kobashigawa, UCLA Medical Center Director of Admissions and Registration Helen Contreraz, LA County Medical Director of Public Health James G. Haughton, UCLA Clinical Transplant Coordinator Rocky Camara, UCLA Pediatric Liver Transplant Program director Suzanne McDiarmid, patients David Heller, Richard Lopez, David Jacobs, Cory Jacobs, Eliza Jacobs, Henry Kirkconnell, Mildred Kirkconnell, and James Hauber, heart transplant consultant Dr. Mehmet Oz, University Cardiovascular Medical Group Executive Director Eric Marton, body effects designer Alec Gillis, and actors Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, Ray Liotta, Anne Heche, James Woods, and Daniel E. Smith.

The comments look at story/characters, cast and performances, the health care system and its issues, and some production notes.

On the surface, it seems annoying the disc offers no “play all” option for all these little clips. However, it kind of does, as I believe everything in “Focus Points” also appears in the remaining extras I’ll discuss.

Those come with their own flaws, but I prefer them to the constant interruptions provided by the “Focus Points”. It’s virtually impossible to enjoy a movie that branches out 46 times, so while we get some good content, the format doesn’t work for me.

As mentioned, the rest of the disc’s extras consist of those “Focus Points”. Fighting For Care provides a 34-minute, 27-second documentary about the circa 2002 realities of the health care system, particularly in regard to organ transplants, and it does so via remarks from the patients and medical professionals found in the “Focus Points”.

Though the program clearly emphasizes the negatives of the system, it does so in a reasonably dispassionate and objective way that allows it to function as information instead of propaganda. It presents the comments in a clear and concise manner that allows greater understanding.

My only complaint relates to the restraints of the original format. To facilitate the integration of the program into small bits that appear during the “Focus Points”, the presentation chops up the segments into 22 bite-sized pieces. The material still works well, but it could definitely flow more smoothly.

Next comes Behind the Scenes of John Q, a 16-minute, 56-second featurette. It provides remarks from Cassavetes, Burg, Elise, Oz, Gillis, Washington, Duvall, Liotta, Heche, Woods, and Smith.

On the positive side, the shots from the set usually seem interesting, and Woods and Washington toss in some decent notes about their work. However, the program includes way too many film clips.

Much of the interview footage appears fairly bland, and the choppiness also seen in “Care” harms the show, as it splits into 18 chapters, which means each segment averages less than a minute apiece. The show works well enough to merit a viewing, but it could become richer and more complex.

Within Deleted/Alternate Scenes, we get six different clips. These run between one minute, eight seconds and nine minutes, 33 seconds for a total of 21 minutes of footage.

The clips seem no better or worse than the material that made the final cut, but some feel redundant or just go on too long. Still, they can become interesting to see as alternate looks at the product.

We can view the scene with or without commentary from director Cassavetes and writer Kearns. Both provide a lot of good information.

They directly cover the reasons for the changes and they add some nice production notes about the segments. Their statements bring a lot to this segment of the package.

We finish with the film’s trailer. The Blu-ray loses an iffy text commentary and a stillframe representation of the movie’s press kit.

Often laughable and usually inane, John Q. totally wastes a solid cast and an intriguing premise. The movie feels like a bad episode of ER as it provides a moronically simplistic and manipulative experience. The Blu-ray offers mediocre picture and pretty good sound along with a positive set of supplements. This becomes a mostly appealing release for a bad movie, though it could use an updated scan.

Note that this 2025 Blu-ray reissues the movie’s prior release in 2009. The 2025 BD simply reproduces the same disc from 16 years earlier.