Denzel Washington’s Two Worst Movies According To Rotten Tomatoes

At this stage, it seems as though Denzel Washington can do no wrong. The man is a Hollywood legend, proving he can take on everything from action blockbuster franchises to thoughtful indie dramas and deliver. If his “Equalizer” movies aren’t for you, there’s always the expressionist nightmare that is Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy Of Macbeth,” in which, as /Film’s review surmised, Denzel was “ferocious,” threatening to “rip that Oscar right out of the throat of the Academy with his bare teeth.”

At 69, the veteran star is still going strong, and will soon appear in “Gladiator II,” Ridley Scott’s follow-up to his 2000 historical action epic. Washington is set to play Macrinus, an arms dealer who supports Lucius Verus II (Paul Mescal) as he takes on the Roman Empire. While many of us are saddened that Scott’s supernatural pitch for the “Gladiator” sequel will never get made, and that Nick Cave’s utterly wild “Christ Killer” script also remains un-produced, there’s no doubt that Denzel will bring his usual effortless magnetism to the sequel — mainly because he hasn’t failed to do so in pretty much everything he’s made thus far.

But even an actor as esteemed as Denzel Washington isn’t without a few blemishes on his filmography. Rotten Tomatoes has already spoken on the subject of Washington’s best film, awarding the coveted honor to Edward Zwick’s 1989 Civil War drama “Glory,” in which Washington played a private in one of the Union’s earliest Black regiments. But what does the Tomatoemeter have to say about the actor’s worst movies? Does the man have a bad film to his name? Well, yes — two, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

The reigning champ of bad Tomatometer scores is, of course, John Travolta, who currently has seven movies with an abysmal 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But when you’re as prolific a star as he, a few clunkers in the oeuvre is par for the course. In the case of Denzel, who shall we say is much more “selective” with his roles, we can happily say that not a single 0% currently exists on the man’s record. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few duds.

In Rotten Tomatoes’ ranking of Denzel movies, 2002’s “John Q” is second to last on the list, with a 26% rating on the site. This thriller from director Nick Cassavetes saw Denzel play the role of John Quincy Archibald, a father who holds hospital staff and patients hostage after he’s told his son, who’s in desperate need of a heart transplant, can’t be placed on the organ donor list without a $75,000 down payment. The film also starred Robert Duvall, James Woods, and the late Anne Heche, but sadly didn’t impress critics, who savaged its lack of plot, mawkishness, and preachy tone.

The 26% for “John Q” is based on a solid 135 reviews, so even if you haven’t seen the film you can be fairly sure “John Q” isn’t Denzel’s finest moment. Still, the movie does at least boast a 78% score on the Popcorn Meter (formerly the audience score), and its average rating — RT’s attempt at aggregating the actual star/letter/number ratings supplied by critics — is 3.9 out of 10, which is slightly better than its 26% Tomatometer score. That said, there’s no denying Washington has inhabited better roles, though one of them certainly wasn’t in this next movie on our list.

Have you ever seen “Heart Condition?” If not, that’s probably a good thing because, according to Rotten Tomatoes, this 1990 comedy is Denzel Washington’s worst film. With a measly 10% rating on the site, “Heart Condition” at least manages to avoid the truly abject 0%. But 10 ain’t much better, and with a 34% Popcorn Meter score and a 3.4 average rating, there’s no getting around the fact that “Heart Condition” just isn’t very good.

This isn’t all that surprising given the premise of the film, which sees Washington play lawyer Napoleon Stone, who passes away only for his heart to be transplanted into the body of racist cop Jack Moony (Bob Hoskins). It seems stories based around heart transplants are cursed for Washington, who in the film has to portray the ghost of Stone as he advises Moony on how to solve his own murder … 10% might even be a tad generous.

Now, it should be said that this 10% rating is based on just 10 reviews, of which only two came from so-called “top critics.” One of those critics was Roger Ebert, however, who gave the film two stars and described it as “all over the map.” On the other hand, he did at least praise Hoskins and Washington, who he maintained “bring a credibility to their roles that the screenplay doesn’t really deserve.”

Now an established star, Washington surely isn’t too bothered about the critical response to “Heart Condition” or “John Q,” and certainly won’t be too worried about what Rotten Tomatoes has to say on the matter. This is, after all, the site that claims there are only two perfect sci-fi movies in the history of cinema. For now, then, we await Denzel’s “Gladiator II” performance safe in the knowledge that the Romans surely won’t be attempting any heart transplants.