Sam Baily, upset over losing his job, takes a natural history museum hostage. Max Brackett, journalist, is in the museum when this occurs, and gets the scoop. The story spreads nation wide, and soon it is all anyone talks about. The story itself is the news, not the reason why or the real people behind it.... (Full plot summary below)
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Sam Baily, upset over losing his job, takes a natural history museum hostage. Max Brackett, journalist, is in the museum when this occurs, and gets the scoop. The story spreads nation wide, and soon it is all anyone talks about. The story itself is the news, not the reason why or the real people behind it.
Leave your thoughts about Mad City.
| The New York TimesElvis MitchellBut Mr. Costa-Gavras, a galvanizing filmmaker working with a splendid cast, is able to tell this story in style. |
| Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittInfluenced by Billy Wilder's classic "Ace in the Hole," this dark comedy-drama rambles on too long and strains credibility at times. |
| Film Journal InternationalKevin LallyHas a fairly good view of the Big Picture, but its dramatic details never come into satisfying focus. |
| Dallas ObserverMichael SragowActually, that shift in moral perspective is the freshest thing in the movie--it keeps the action absorbing even when the script keeps hammering us with lessons about the commercial exploitation of the news and TV audiences' craziness and gullibility. |
| Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumDirector Costa-Gavras packs a whole lotta hectoring into this high-strung morality play about the broadcast media's culpability in the escalation of human drama into camera-ready Greek tragedy. |
| New York Daily NewsJami BernardIt has, at times, a loopy, edgy humor and moments of genuinely affecting pathos. But somehow the combination doesn't add up to anything. |
| EmpireJake HamiltonYet in trying to be honest and non-conformist, Mad City does the most dishonest thing imaginable: it conforms to Hollywood routine. |
| Chicago ReaderLisa AlspectorIt's always at least a little disingenuous to attack the medium that's your bread and butter; this media-bashing movie tries to get around the problem by restricting its critique to television, specifically the news. |
| rec.arts.movies.reviewsJames SanfordThe weak material is unenthusiastically played by Dustin Hoffman and downright badly handled by John Travolta... |
| VarietyEmanuel LevyIn actuality, however, what unfolds onscreen is a simplistic and obvious expose about the manipulative power of the news media that by now is so familiar that its cynical perspective is not likely to upset or provoke anyone. |
