Raetsonwe Redundant and unnecessary.

Pluskylang Great Film overall

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Tobias Burrows It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

freeway-6 Mad City was released in 1997, and even with two major stars above the title, did not fare well at the U.S. box office. Here it is the last month of 2014 and wow, does Mad City seem all the more relevant today. The film exposes the manipulation and deceit that takes place by the so-called news organizations, and what seemed shockingly outrageous and exaggerated in 1997 is no match for the biased, opinionated news reporting that is fed today to the unsuspecting public. John Travolta gives one of his best performances as a recently fired museum security guard. Dustin Hoffman is equally compelling as a rogue former network correspondent. Alan Alda is the ruthless network anchor who will do anything to take ownership of a breaking story. It's all about ego for those in front of the camera, and eyeballs and ratings for the suits at the major networks. Definitely worth watching even if it's just for the performances of Travolta and Hoffman.

bkoganbing Mad City is almost a remake of Billy Wilder's Ace In The Hole with a bit of Network thrown in. The Kirk Douglas part has shifted to a television reporter and it's played with relish by Dustin Hoffman. By sheer chance Hoffman is in the Museum Of Natural History when a security guard who's been laid off due to budget cuts, pulls a shotgun out of canvas bag and holds museum director Blythe Danner, a school teacher and her class who were out on a field trip just as the museum is closing. Oh and he accidentally shoots his former co-worker security guard Bill Nunn as well. That kind of seals his fate.As good as Dustin Hoffman is the film really belongs to John Travolta as the desperate security guard, a slow witted kind of man who really hasn't thought through what he's doing. Hoffman realizing he's got an exclusive story becomes Travolta's media adviser, stringing it out for all it's worth. Travolta has to walk a fine line in this film, balancing his character's situation in his portrayal. We empathize with him, many of us who have ever been desperate and without a paycheck, but we can't sympathize with a man who's holding a whole bunch of grade school kids hostage. Sam Bailey ranks as one of the two or three best pieces of work John Travolta has ever done. In the meantime Hoffman who is also mentoring young reporter Mia Kirshner, too well as it turns out, has also got a rivalry with network anchor Alan Alda. One thing I've noticed about Alan Alda, since he's left MASH, he's gone out of his way to take roles that are the farthest thing from good guy Hawkeye Pierce. He and Hoffman hate each other and Alda's attempts to spin the story his way and Hoffman's countermoves are what really set up the inevitable climax.Mad City is not very nice look at the news business and what people will do to get a story. The film has its roots not only in Ace In The Hole and Network, but you could make a case going all the way back to Five Star Final and other films showing the darker side of reporting and the agenda driven people in that business.Sad to say is that the news is business, show business in fact. In the end poor Travolta had to get off the stage.

ccthemovieman-1 Man, this was some indictment of the television-reporter-mentality! It was exaggerated, of course, but still interesting to see and in many respects good to see because of the onslaught of tabloid-mentality journalism that seems to have taken over the media in recent years. That kind of "reporting" should be exposed and ridiculed.Whatever, you can enjoy this film for the acting alone with Dustin Hoffman, John Travolta, Alan Alda, Robert Prosky, Mia Kirschner and Ted Levine. These actors, and some good dialog, make the film move along at a good clip despite the absence of much happening on screen.The story gets you involved and reminds me of the famous 70s film, Dog Day Afternoon, in which much of the film takes place in a bank. Here, it's a museum, and a man is in a predicament something like Al Pacino was in that film except Travolta's character here is totally innocent.The screenwriters added bit of humor to this involving story and that made it even better. It's very good entertainment and certainly recommended.

Lee Eisenberg Taking a break from "handsome" roles, John Travolta plays Sam Baily, hijacking a museum to demand his job back. Reporter Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman) happens to be inside when this happens and gets the whole story. But before long, the whole thing becomes a media spectacle.I should identify that "Mad City" is neither about condemning nor glorifying the media. It shows how our media-dominated society looks for anything to make news. We would probably expect that Costa-Gavras, who directed "Z" and "Missing", would do a good job, and he doesn't disappoint. Also starring Mia Kirshner, Alan Alda, Robert Prosky, Blythe Danner, William Atherton, Ted Levine and Lucinda Jenney.