Rating- * * (2/5)
Over the past decade, Denzel Washington has shown us that he is without a doubt one of the best actors in Hollywood. He has also shown us, however, that he does not have the best taste in scripts. His early career was pretty good, with movies like Philadelphia and other courtroom dramas. He quickly took a downturn in his film quality. His turn as a wrongly imprisoned boxer in The Hurricane was a very believable performance but the film gave us no emotion or interesting plot. In Remember the Titans, he was great as a morally uncompromising football coach. Unfortunately, he was the only thing good about this abysmally contrived and average sports movie. Sadly, the trend is still going with Washington’s latest movie, John Q. This film starts off being about the injustice of our medical care system in America but in the style of most bad movies, it quickly forgets its message in order to go off on its own more exciting resolution. Washington plays a blue-collar man down on his luck in the slowing economy whose son suddenly needs a heart transplant. Unfortunately, the evil hospital management, played by James Wood and Anne Heche, won’t do the operation unless he can pay for it. Those mean capitalists! There I go preaching my beliefs again. As it happens, I don’t agree with the politics pushed by this movie, but the politics aren’t what make this a bad movie. The script is what makes this a bad movie. The plot is so contrived and predictable that even guest stars like Robert Duval and Ray Liotta can’t save this bomb. The movie totally abandons its message near the end for a cheap tension trick to try and leave the audience in suspense until the last moment. This makes the untrained moviegoer thinking they have seen a great movie just because they didn’t know the ending until the last second. Please do not be deceived. In fact, don’t waste your time in the first place. Let’s all hope that this is Denzel’s last stint as the best actor in a bad movie.