Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

SnoopyStyle 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.

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.

slightlymad22 I love Dustin Hoffman. He is an actor who will rarely sell you short (not pun intended) he is fantastic in everything I have seen him in, from 'Marathon Man' and 'Kramer V's Kramer' his Oscar winning turn in 'Rain Man' or 'Mr Magoriums Wonder Emporium' and 'Tootsie'. He is always a delight to watch, and the fact that he teams up with A popular again (thanks to 'Pulp Fiction') John Travolta should have made this immediate viewing. But for some reason this movie escaped me.And the main reason is probably Travolta, I liked him growing up thanks to 'Grease', 'Saturday Night Fever' 'Stayin' Alive' and 'Look Who's Talking' but as I entered my teens I became bored of him, I thought his turn in 'Pulp Fiction' was over rated, and although I enjoyed 'Phenomenon' nothing else I'd seen him in convinced me otherwise. An out of favour reporter (Hoffman) is sent to a Museum to cover a "bit of fluff" story and finds himself in the middle of a great story when a sacked security guard (Travolta) takes some visiting children hostage. Of the supporting cast Robert Prosky was solid as Hoffman's boss, and Mia Krishner as his ambitious protégé Laurie is OK. Alan Alda is as wonderful as he always is as the egotistical anchorman. Hoffman is as reliable as you'd expect as the reporter who manipulates the situation up help revive his career. But Travolta is the star here, his likable, every man who is down on his luck has you rooting for him, despite the fact that he is holding children hostage at gunpoint. Given the talent on show I'm surprised this failed to find an audience.

Rodrigo Amaro A down with luck TV reporter (Dustin Hoffman) has the gold chance of his life when he finds the story of a lifetime while covering a hostage situation in a museum. John Travolta plays a fired security who held several kids and a museum director (Blythe Danner) as hostages simply because he wanted his job back. Max Brackett, the reporter, was there doing a small report about the place when everything started right on his front. Here stars the story of "Mad City" and some ponderations on the media role and the ones who watch it, which means, us!Wisely translated in Portuguese as "The Fourth Power" the film directed by Costa Gavras ("Missing", "Z") is satirical without being extremely funny or ridiculous; dramatical without becoming melodramatic; and controversial without being too shocking; criticizes but not that much, pointing its fingers on the media blaming it for being irresponsible and unethical, but where's the criticism towards audiences of this fourth power? Everybody (or almost everybody because every unanimity is dumb) loves sensationalistic journalism and its wide coverage of pointless subjects, sometimes very relevant news. People are very hunger for that and most of the time they don't even care if a sensational news story is true or false. And the media, in countries where it is the fourth power (behind the legislative, executive and judiciary) takes advantage of that, fooling people (but only the ones who want to be fooled or are too ignorant to have a better perspective). So in the film Brackett gets his lesson at the end, but what about the viewers? Most of them didn't get it all, that's why this film is bad criticized and barely heard. And how come a movie that attacks the whole media and press can be well judged or be a box-office hit? People are blind to these things. But when you have masterpieces like "Network" or "Ace in the Hole" this film pales a little in comparison.It might not have the same ferocity and originality as his works but it is a great work directed by Costa Gavras, with a great screenplay, nice music and fine acting by Hoffman (who now disowned the film in interviews calling of something I can post here referring to the word "City", yes, he does that with what he calls his bad films, go figure!), Travolta, Blythe Danner, Alan Alda, Ted Levine, Raymond J. Barry, William Atherton, Robert Prosky, Mia Kershner and Bill Nunn. I like this film a lot, it should have a larger audience to it, but it looks like it will be almost impossible to bring more attention to it, or a reevaluation by film buff's, critics and others. The cult status will take a while to be deserved by "Mad City". 10/10