MAD CITY (Warner Brothers) Directed by Costa-Gavras The feeding frenzy for tidbits about breaking news stories among TV reporters has become so absurd in recent years that it hardly needs to be satirized: Just turn on CNN or MSNBC the next time there's a revelation about the car crash that killed Princess Diana and count how many different ways they can present the same piece of information. Certainly no media figures will be stung by the puffball satire "Mad City," which centers around the circus that develops around a hostage situation in the town of Madeline, California; though writers Tom Matthews and Eric Williams seem anxious to take the media to task for their excesses, their screenplay is more preachy than it is astringent. The weak material is unenthusiastically played by Dustin Hoffman (unimaginative and off-putting as a reporter anxious to recapture his glamor) and downright badly handled by John Travolta as the laid-off museum security guard whose attempt to get his job back sets the story in motion. Trying to put himself in the shoes of a none-too-bright working-class guy, Travolta often looks like he's auditioning for the part of Lennie in the next production of "Of Mice and Men." His rambling monologues about his dreams and disappointments are underscored by music that sounds like it was lifted from a "Waltons" episode, perhaps in a futile attempt to make this caricature seem human. "If we do not learn from the past, we are destined to repeat it," notes museum curator Blythe Danner early on in the film. She might have added "or at least remake it," since "Mad City" is obviously striving for a "Dog Day Afternoon"-type atmosphere of delightful/disturbing chaos. But the film fails as both black-comedy and as slice-of-life drama, and director Costa-Gavras' attempt at a potent finale is embarassingly heavy-handed: "Mad City" is a movie straight outta Dullsville.
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