I watched the lowest-rated Denzel Washington movie of all time, and it's not as bad as you think

"Heart Condition" is a moment I've been dreading in my Denzel Watchathon. For those of you who are new to this series, I was inspired by an X (Twitter) post by The New York Times senior staff writer, Brooklyn White-Grier, to watch one of Denzel's 52 movies every week of 2026. I'm starting with 1981's "Carbon Copy" and ending with last year's "Highest 2 Lowest."

But "Heart Condition" was a movie I had circled on the calendar, and not for a good reason. This movie has the distinction of being the lowest-rated Denzel movie on Rotten Tomatoes, ever. Of all time. It's a mere 10% from critics on the review aggregator, and its audience rating of 33% isn't much better.

However, I've now watched the comedy starring Bob Hoskins as a racist cop and Denzel as the Black lawyer who donates a heart to him, then haunts him until they solve his murder, and I was surprised by my reaction. Yes, that premise makes it sound awful, and at first it is. But by the end of the 100-minute-long movie, I found a few occasions to laugh and even a few moments to feel something more.

If you want to watch this movie before you read on, you have a few options. "Heart Condition" isn't available on any of the best streaming services, but you can buy or rent it from Amazon. Or, if you're like me, you can stream "Heart Condition" with a YouTube TV subscription.

Malcolm McMillan

Malcolm has been with the Streaming team at Tom's Guide since 2023, reviewing dozens of movies each year so you don't have to watch the bad ones.

'Heart Condition' starts out awful, but eventually flirts with being a good movie

As I mentioned, the premise for this movie is absurd. It stars Bob Hoskins as the openly racist police sergeant Jack Moony. He's got a personal vendetta with lawyer Napoleon Stone (Washington), and in the opening of the movie, we see Moony chase Stone through Los Angeles, fire on him with his gun, arrest him, punch him in the gut and call him the N-word.

Not long after that, Moony, who doesn't take care of himself, nearly dies of a heart attack. Except — surprise — at the last second, a heart donor is found: Stone, who has shockingly died.

If you turned off the movie at this point, I wouldn't blame you. After all, this movie is supposed to star Denzel. And now he's already dead? That makes no sense.

But then you realize the real plot of this movie. After getting the heart transplant, Moony is haunted by Stone, who wants Moony to take good care of his heart and find out who killed him.

At the center of the conflict between Moony and Stone is a girl: Crystal (Chloe Webb). She was dating Moony, but then became a prostitute not long after she and Moony split. That's how Stone meets her, and then they become an item, which is why Moony hates Stone so much ... aside from the whole being a bigot thing.

As Moony and Stone work to investigate the cause of Stone's death, though, which quickly becomes intertwined with Crystal and her boss, Graham (Jeffrey Meek), the movie shifts from awful, absurd and absurdly awful, to weirdly compelling.

Hoskins and Denzel do have chemistry together. Their characters have depth to them. We see growth from Moony as he realizes his bigotry and selfish nature have derailed much of his professional and personal life. We see Stone realize mistakes he's made and come to terms with the life moments he'll never get to experience, a few of which genuinely tug on your heartstrings.

The movie also manages to live up to its comedy billing on more than a few occasions. Moony can see and hear Stone, but nobody else can. This leads to a few scenes where Moony appears to be arguing with himself, walking around like a crazy person or even dancing with a cheeseburger. The comedic peak of the movie, though, is when Stone realizes his brother, Archimedes, was stealing from his rainy day stash of cash. So Stone grabs Moony's hand and forces the cop to bunch Stone's brother and then run for his life as Archimedes' associates chase him.

Verdict: 'Heart Condition' isn't Denzel's worst movie, despite what critics say

Heart Condition (1990) Trailer - YouTube

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Look, I certainly won't pretend this movie is good. It's probably not even fine. The beginning is absurd and there are more than a few questionable choices made throughout it. But "Heart Condition" is far from the worst movie I've seen. It's not even the worst Denzel Washington movie I've seen; I'd watch it on repeat before I ever watch "Carbon Copy" or "Power" again.

So, am I recommending you stream this movie? No. There are definitely better ways to spend your time. But if you had a morbid curiosity about just how bad this movie could be, and you want to check it out for yourself, I'm warning you now: "Heart Condition" will surprise you when it occasionally flirts with being a good movie.

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