CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

mfreemanleadman All of his fantastic work gets thrown out of the window with this cliché driven film. Each and every character and every line of this film is a cliché. This continues another long line of John Travolta films that prove that 80 percent of his films and the portrayals in them are horrible. This might be one of his worst. He does the same acting tricks that he did in "Michael" and "Phenomenon." I watch this, and I cannot help but laugh at how bad he is. And if you believe for one second that this scenario could actually happen, then you are sorely mislead and misled. All of the other actors can't be criticized as badly as Travolta; they probably thought that working with Costa-Gavras was an honor and they are only as good (bad) as the script. Gavras must have been near the end of his career and the likely scenario is that an American Studio believed that having his name on the film was good business.

Bene Cumb Although they tend to criticize them and to find their weak spots... As there is tough competition and rivalry in (private) networks, persons with high ambition and need for fame and glory are eager to exploit any person and item for their own benefit. Mostly it is comical, but at times it takes serious or event tragic scope - when/if innocent people, victims or their families are involved. And in the era of online search engines, it is impossible to leave things behind and move on with their lives.The duo Dustin Hoffman - John Travolta is brilliant, at least 2 additional points from me because of them. Other actors are good as well. As for Costa-Cavras, he has directed better stuff: there are twists and turns, but tension is sometimes falling, and those almost two hours are too much for this story. The ending is predictable as well.Nevertheless, Mad City is deserves more attention and bigger ratings than it has achieved. It is no family entertainment, however.

neithernor2000 I think infinity is the number to which I approach...listing reasons to like this movie. Before I forget the "likeable, trustworthy" Alan Anchor Alda is equal to Walter Cronkite after the oil slick. The evolution of the little girl assistant to Dustin Hoffman...at end wearing red lipstick to match Dustin's blood...if you were to subtract from film all unnecessary dialog/footage you would equal absolute zero. Robert Proskey was born into such roles...The first 2 two kids released were terrified of the assaulting media but loved the man with the gun...When all the kids are released>>>one walks back and says "Thank you SAM"...the stupid ass roof shooters shooting up "Big Indian Bob" in the middle of a great story being told by the man with the gun...Arguably, the best actor of the last 50 years, Dustin Hoffman is pure gold dust but Travolta shines magnificently and...a happy ending was impossible...The ultimate hostage taker is the media!

MisterWhiplash Mad City is one of those movies you see in the theater, possibly when you were younger and can remember seeing rated R movies as something of a kind of big deal, and then re-watch it on TV almost as a way to relive the experience as much as enjoy the movie. Then, as one gets older, re-watching the movie isn't quite the same if it isn't, well, very good. And yet even as Mad City isn't something I'd say to a friend "watch this right away, it'll change your life" (that, of course, from Costa-Gravas, would be Z), it's definitely a good view for something on a lazy day or night, or for a minor Dustin Hoffman or (yes) John Travolta craving. It does happen from time to time.The two stars are in very fine shape here- as far as the script can let them be- as a clear-headed but desperate reporter and a security guard with a heap of bad trouble respectively, who are put into an unintentional hostage situation after Travolta's recently fired museum security guard accidentally shoots a fellow guard and has to hold up a bunch of kids who are in the museum (plus Hoffman, in the bathroom after a boring interview while this happens), and then it turns into a media blitz. When these two actors interact the way they do, or even go through their somewhat predictable motions, it works at the least because we get to see Hoffman and Travolta as characters they've worked out and almost perfected in their own way. We believe them in this situation, and that should be enough to make it at least compelling viewing....Except, unfortunately, for a preachy screenplay, which half the time is simplistic tabloid entertainment and the other half dogmatic about the nature of the media. Costa-Gravas tries for moments that go for the satirical (one of my favorite bits is when we see the shot security guard recovering in his hospital room, waking up the first time to see a giant camera crane rising outside of his window to get his reaction to seeing a giant camera crane from a news group). It's definitely 20 years too late: Network got their first, quicker, brighter, funnier, and even with some better action. Perhaps there would have been more possibilities if the movie had been made today, when cable news is even more saturated with BS filler, one analysis to the next taking up time from actual other news that could be reported.But, for complaints that can be had with Mad City, and there are more than a few, it's surely watchable Hollywood stuff, and this is thanks to the direction (I really liked the tension when Travolta is telling the kids the Indian ghost story in front of the display in the museum), and a nice roster of supporting/character actors. If you've never seen a Dustin Hoffman or John Travolta movie before, by all means look elsewhere. But if you got nothing better to do, it isn't bad.