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.
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.