Friday, 15 February 2002 : "John Q review"

...if a man goes to a busy emergency room, pulls a gun, takes the place over and demands policy changes or he'll start killing hostages, what would you call him? Why, I believe the answer is: a terrorist.

But ... according to the grotesquely inverted moral compass of "John Q.," here's what we'd call the man: a hero. On top of that, he'd be played by ... that emblem of decency and intelligence, Denzel Washington.

It's as crass and manipulative as a Stalin-era poster, it reduces the complexities to bromides and slogans and it gets so preachy-keen and so tub-thumpingly loud it makes you feel like a chump just for sitting through it. (You don't have to; I took one for the team and already did.)