SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Hard-hitting ratings-obsessed investigative TV reporter Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman) is sent to the Museum of Natural History to do a story about its financial difficulties. Recently fired security guard Sam Baily (John Travolta) locks down the museum and takes everybody including a group of school kids hostage. Laurie Callahan (Mia Kirshner) is Max's inexperienced camera person outside. Lou Potts (Robert Prosky) is the station manager and Dohlen (William Atherton) is the local anchor. While arguing with the curator Mrs. Banks (Blythe Danner), Sam accidentally shoots his fellow guard Cliff (Bill Nunn). The situation escalates into a media circus. Network anchor Kevin Hollander (Alan Alda) reluctantly takes over the broadcast despite mistrusting Brackett. Chief Lemke (Ted Levine) leads the local cops.Travolta tries too hard with his hang-dog face. He gets a bit annoying by acting too much. He would be more scary and more depressed by being quieter. At first, I wondered if he's trying to play a slow character and if it would be better for him to be more normal. The movie does a functional job skewering the news media. Hoffman is a solid selfish newsman. This is not that great but it gets by.

Costa Gavras' "Mad City" sees actor Dustin Hoffman playing Max Brackett, a television reporter who uses a recent news story to boost his own career. The news story? A recently laid-off security guard returns to the museum at which he worked in an attempt to get his job back. When his former boss (the unsubtly named Mrs Banks) refuses his demands, the security guard goes berserk and holds the entire museum, which is filled with school children, hostage. The film is derivative of Lumet's "Dog Day Afternoon" and "Network", Billy Wilder's "Ace in the Hole" and William Wellman's "Magic Town", but nevertheless goes in some interesting directions. For example, the film uses the Natural History Museum in an ironic fashion, the world of history bulldozed by media, America a soul deadened prison reliant on sensationalized news stories and a constant trickle of crass reports to drum up excitement. The kids held hostage are themselves unfazed, their lives a gun filled television show even before the news vans pulled up.6.5/10 – All of Costa Gavras' Hollywood films are weaker than his foreign language films, but this one is the weakest. Overlong, and badly acted, "Mad City" nevertheless manages to be at once dumber and more complex than its generally given credit. I attribute this paradox to magic.

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!

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.