Great Film: Mad City
I think it's fantastic.
Dustin Hoffman plays a disgraced former newsman named Max Brackett, who
inadvertently stumbles into the story that could rejuvenate his career:
security guard Sam Baily (John Travolta), who's miserable over being
laid off, has tried to talk to his former boss (Blythe Danner) at
gunpoint, and ended up taking hostages. Brackett proceeds to manipulate
the course of events - and Baily himself - in order to ensure a major
news spectacle.
This is tops in my book; I just thought it was so compelling, and even
though I've seen it once before, I still got a charge out of it. It
kept me interested, and it featured great performances by all the major
actors - especially Hoffman, who really owns the movie.
It certainly paints an ugly picture of the media - and although I'm
sure there are a number of media types who really do glorify and
magnify stories at the expense of facts, I'm not ignorant enough to
believe they are all like that.
This is a genuinely entertaining movie and I would recommend it to
others.
9/10
Cast
- Sam Baily played by John Travolta
- Chief Alvin Lemke played by Ted Levine
- Special Agent Dobbins played by Raymond J. Barry
- Max Brackett played by Dustin Hoffman
- Malt Dohlen played by William Atherton
- Laurie Callahan played by Mia Kirshner
- Kevin Hollander played by Alan Alda
