'JOHN Q.' TAKES US HOSTAGE.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

IT'S NOT A GOOD SIGN when you make a movie about a dying boy in need of a heart transplant and, during what's supposed to be the heart-rending finale, half the audience is bursting into laughter and not the intended tears. But then, there are plenty of ominous signs throughout the shameless atrocity that is ``John Q.,'' a manipulative screed about health care and HMOs that plays like an unholy cross between the worst episodes of ``General Hospital'' and ``Adam-12.''

Denzel Washington, halo firmly back in place after his role as the bad guy in ``Training Day,'' plays the title character, an Everyday Joe Six- Pack being shafted whichever direction he turns. John's hours have been cut back at the factory because all the work is going to Mexico, the bank has repossessed his car, and now, when his young son (newcomer Daniel E. Smith) needs a heart transplant, he learns that his medical insurer considers the vital operation to be ``elective surgery.''

That doesn't sit well with John's wife, Denise (Kimberly Elise), who screams at her husband, telling him to ``do something.'' She obviously doesn't figure that that ``something'' will involve John taking an entire emergency room hostage. (Actually, it's only a handful of people - obviously a slow day for a Chicago hospital.) John's catch phrase - ``This hospital's under new management now'' - sounds like a line out of a Schwarzenegger movie, a clue to the revenge fantasy at this film's hollow core.

John's actions are obviously selfish and misguided and threaten a number of innocent people's lives. But don't tell that to director Nick Cassavetes (`She's So Lovely'') or screenwriter James Kearns (TV's ``Highway to Heaven''). To them, John is a downtrodden saint, a Victim of the System, an archetype to go along with the other cliched characters - the uncaring hospital administrator (Anne Heche), gung-ho police chief (Ray Liotta), honorable hostage negotiator (Robert Duvall), the ratings-obsessed TV reporter (Paul Johansson) and the haughty head of surgery (James Woods).

The stereotypes don't end with the characters. Casting the icy Heche and the unlikable Woods as the baddies is pure laziness. (Boris and Natasha weren't available?) How about making Woods the straight-arrow with Heche as his concerned wife and Washington as the aloof doctor? It probably wouldn't result in a better movie - the problems are too deep for any actor to solve - but it would certainly make for a more interesting one.

But ``John Q.'' is only interested in reinforcing images and stereotypes (including racial ones) instead of examining them. It's the worst kind of popular entertainment - selmportant and deceptive, pretending to cast light on an important issue while cravenly taking the easy way out at every turn. It's early, but I can't imagine seeing a worse movie this year.

JOHN Q. One and one half stars

(Rated PG-13: violence, language and intense drama)

Starring: Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, James Woods, Anne Heche.

Director: Nick Cassavetes.

Running time: 2 hr. 5 min.

Playing: Citywide.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Kimberly Elise, Daniel E. Smith, center, and Denzel Washington are a family faced with a medical crisis in ``John Q.''