History YMMV / JohnQ

* {{Anvilicious}}: Depending on your viewpoint or how extreme your particular viewpoint is.
** Obviously, the film's main target is the American health care system, but there are also transparent statements against politicians, gun culture, corporate media, and low tax-motivated voters.
* AudienceAlienatingPremise: Foreign audiences find the premise of TheHero taking an ER at gunpoint after being denied life-saving surgery alien and unrelatable (though not necessarily bad or uninteresting) because either healthcare is easier to come by, guns are harder to come by, or both.

* AcceptableTargets: [=HMOs=], large hospitals, and essentially any other piece of corporate health care. The entire movie is essentially framed as an attack on the health establishment.

** That could be the point of the film (see above): explore this scenario in a movie where [[spoiler:things work out ideally; no one dies, the patient is saved, and the hostage taker gives themself up peacefully]] to make a statement, rather than wait for it to real-life where nearly anything could go wrong.

** However, John [[spoiler:does get arrested and will be facing jail-time, albeit a more lenient sentence than one would normally get]].

* HarsherInHindsight: The death of Creator/AnneHeche from a car crash, like the woman at the beginning of the movie, and being on life support, like Michael was for most of the movie.

* AmericansHateTingle: The movie made twice its budget in the US and barely any overseas.

* AmericansHateTingle: The movie made twice its budget in the US and barely any overseas, most likely because of lack of relatability.

* ValuesDissonance: To a certain degree, between American and some foreign audiences. To those in countries that have universal healthcare, many of which consider healthcare to be a human right, the American medical system displayed in the movie (and in RealLife) can range from baffling and complicated to downright horrifying.

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Depending on your viewpoint or how extreme your particular viewpoint is.

* SugarWiki/FunnyMoments: When the abusive boyfriend gets what was coming to him...

* DesignatedHero: The audience is supposed to be cheering John on, but he does a lot of very questionably moral things. He takes an entire hospital waiting room hostage, (which leads to a patient almost dying), he makes doctors work on people at gunpoint (the gun may not have been loaded, but the doctors certainly didn't know that), and he essentially steals a heart from someone else, who will then die because they couldn't find a heart. And on top of that, he never questions his actions or feels any regret about what he's doing. Instead he keeps insisting that what he's doing is right, and chews anyone out who doesn't agree with him. Not only did this stunt waste the police's time and the taxpayer's money, but he also endangered the lives of dozens of people [[FridgeHorror and most likely inspired dozens of copycats]], but the audience is not supposed to think about this, because [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality he's the protagonist.]]
** That could be the point of the film (see above): explore this scenario in a movie where [[spoiler: things work out ideally; no one dies, the patient is saved and the hostage taker gives themself up peacefully]] to make a statement, rather than wait for it to real-life where nearly anything could go wrong.

** However, John [[spoiler: does get arrested and will be facing jail-time, albeit a more lenient sentence than one would normally get]].

* StockholmSyndrome: Some could argue the hostages in the hospital underwent this, especially due to John's manners [[spoiler: that he didn't kill anyone]], sympathetic motivations and (for some) relatable circumstances.

* {{Anvilicious}}/SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: Depending on your viewpoint or how extreme your particular viewpoint is.
* CrowningMomentOfFunny: When the abusive boyfriend gets what was coming to him...

* ValuesDissonance: To a certain degree, between American and some foreign audiences. To those in countries that have universal healthcare, many of which consider healthcare to be a human right, the American medical system displayed in the movie (and in RealLife) can range from baffling and complicated to downright horrifying.

* StockholmSyndrome: Some could argue the hostages in the hospital underwent this, especially due to John's manners [[spoiler: that he didn't kill anyone]] and sympathetic motivations.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: "This hospital is under new management! '''FREE HEALTH-CARE FOR ''EVERYBODY!!'' ''' "
** Watching the jury [[spoiler: only convict John of the lesser kidnapping charge]]
** "I am not gonna bury my '''''son!''''' My son is going to bury me!

* TearJerker: Denzel's powerful performance lends itself to a couple of these, particularly when he finds out about his son's condition.

* TearJerker: Denzel's powerful performance lends itself to a couple of these, particularly when he finds out about his son's condition

* {{Anvilicious}}
** SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped

** Watching the jury [[spoiler: only convict John of the lesser kidnapping charge]]

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome: Watching the jury [[spoiler: only convict John of the lesser kidnapping charge]]

* YourMileageMayVary: The critics almost universally panned it and many viewers were apparently put off by the film's constant political maneuvering, but many still praise Denzel Washington's performance and have rated the movie highly despite it's flaws