“John Q” — Denzel Washington, James Woods and Robert Duvall go slumming in this heavy-handed and predictable story about a dad (Washington) who takes a hospital hostage so they’ll put his son’s name on a heart transplant list. Early on, Washington delivers some fine moments playing a blue-collar construction worker who will do anything for his wife and kid. But then the plot spirals out of control and a viewer is left to marvel at the fact that Washington’s performance actually makes this bad script palatable. C
—John Hansen, NDSU Spectrum, Feb. 22, 2002