An orgy of shallow media-bashing, masquerading as a balanced look at the ways the press -- particularly TV news journalists -- shape the perceptions of a gullible public. Veteran TV newsman Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman) has fallen from the heights
of Manhattan broadcasting to the backwater of the network's Madeline, CA, affiliate, all because he didn't have the stomach for the kind of grossly sensationalistic coverage that keeps ratings high. When fortune drops Brackett in the middle of a pathetic muddle of a hostage drama at a local
museum, he recognizes his ticket back to the big time. Brackett takes it upon himself to advise and manipulate inadvertent hostage-t...
Released:
1997
Rated:
PG-13
Length:
144 mins