[.ca] Mad City (Widescreen/Full Screen) (ISBN 0790734737)

From Amazon.com:
This earnest effort at media criticism is never convincing enough to stir a viewer's outrage in the way filmmaker Costa-Gavras (Music Box) might have intended. John Travolta plays a barely educated museum guard who is laid off from his job and ends up holding his former boss (Blythe Danner) and a bunch of schoolchildren hostage. Dustin Hoffman is a former television-network journalist making a grab at the limelight again by pushing and controlling press coverage of the story. What follows is by the numbers and not nearly as enlightening or enthralling as other films (such as Dog Day Afternoon or Billy Wilder's Ace in the Hole) about simple events manipulated into a media circus. Despite Travolta's tragic performance and Hoffman's impassioned one, the film breaks up over efforts to blame electronic voyeurism for social chaos. The DVD release has optional full-screen and widescreen presentations, production notes, theatrical trailer, television spots, optional French soundtrack, French or Spanish subtitles, and Dolby sound. --Tom Keogh

Tense, and unpredictable:
This was a good movie, and I don't want to ruin the ending because it should be a surprise, as I was. It's about a guy(Travolta) working on low wage, as a security guard at a church. He gets fired! So, he can't get Ms. Banks to listen to him. So, he comes in with a gun and a bag(you'll find out what's in it!) He's surprised to find a class and a teacher on tour there. A media guy(Dustin Hoffman) is in the bathroom reporting to a girl outside. He thinks Sam(Travolta) is taking hostages, but Sam's not. Sam goes to get his job back. Ms. Banks still doesn't listen to him. Sam shoots and accidentally hits his good friend, the other security guard for the church. Which gets the media even more involved. Things keep on packing up until the end, where the girl switches to the story, and Max(Hoffman) realizes the truth. Great story, startling suspense, so WATCH THIS!!!!

It's a mad, mad, mad world:
This satirical movie starts innocently enough, with Dustin Hoffman (Max Brackett) doing a "controversial" story on a local criminal. Brackett has been relegated to small-town duty after embarassing the network star, Kevin Hollander (played brilliantly by Alan Alda). Sam Baily (Travolta) has been fired after working as a guard at a museum. He lives paycheck to paycheck and has a family to support. To get his boss to listen to him, he makes the decision to take a gun with him to capture her attention...a gun and a bag full of dynamite. The movie is wonderful, not for the twists and turns, but for the performances and nuances. A number of times, Brackett could take a risk and end the situation, a situation he basically created himself out of his own greed. In the end, this movie has great commentary on how the media goes overboard in its coverage. This movie may be more relevant today than when it was made.

Great drama movie!:
I myself really loved this movie.It was sad and funny both.If you like drama movies and sad movies or funny movies you like this movie alot.Hoffman and Travolta did a great job in this film.

Great Suspense!:
This is a great suspense movie. Gives a realistic view of how the media circus sometimes go to far. Hoffman and Travolta are marvelous in this film.

Excellent farce of a hold up:
It epitomizes the media circus following the armed hold up of a museum with children. Certainly a comical look at terror attacks is a much needed relief in this day and age of color coded alerts. Costa Gavras of "Missing" fame sugar coats the ordeal with satirical portrayal of liberal and conservative neonazis fishing in troubled waters; while extracting a remarkable performance from Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta.