Predrag Travolta does a superb job of playing a semi-educated yet noble working man who doesn't know how to deal with bad luck. He doesn't even understand that his lay-off isn't his fault and nothing can be done about it. He stumbles into a hostage taking situation and initially is too upset to agree to anything, including immediate surrender. The theme is not altogether incredible in our times an embittered employee going berserk and threatening violence. Problem is that Travolta is saddled with the challenge to portray this unwitting hostage-taker, part antagonist and part victim. I'd contend that he failed to bring out this delicate dichotomy. Even Hoffman's full-blooded newsman with a childish, self-centered ambition and some very sardonic light moments in the earlier half, cannot save the film from its maudlin second half, by which time it's already too late for us to care. The screenwriters added bit of humor to this involving story and that made it even better. It's a decent entertainment and certainly recommended.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Python Hyena Mad City (1997): Dir: Constantin Costa Gavras / Cast: John Travolta, Dustin Hoffman, Mia Kershner, Alan Alda, Ted Levine: Miserable little item that deserves to be tossed in a fireplace. It regards hysteria created by media about events that they know absolutely nothing about. Dustin Hoffman plays a news anchorman who is inside a museum when John Travolta holds several children and a few adults hostage. He was recently laid off as a security guard at the museum unable to provide for his family. Hoffman wishes to help and even arranges an interview where Travolta voices regrets with regards to an injured security guard. Typical setup travels formula before arriving at an ultra cheap ending. Director Constantin Costa Gavras throws in a lame rap song about the injured security guard, which plays as really bad mishandled humour. Why not throw in a few funny Jay Leno monologues while we're at it? Hoffman is a terrific actor but even he cannot bring dignity to this piece of sh*t. All he can do is wait until the idiot conclusion hits. Travolta falls into overacting as he expresses regret over a complete idiotic action on his part. Also features uninspiring work by Mia Kershner and Alan Alda who do their best to frig up Hoffman's story to their brand of corruption. It regards media meddling at its most annoying and its delivery could drive a person mad. Score: 1 / 10

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.

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