You're Only as Good as Your Next One

Rating:
Summary: The flip side
Review: ...the flip side of the movie business, that is, this memoir of a former agent and producer. The 300 films he mentioned are scattered throughout in italics. Mr. Medavoy writes extensively of the process of producing movies. He makes sures we know he is responsible for the success of many motion pictures. He also admits no one knows why one film which shows every indication of becoming a smash will fail, while another will come out of nowhere and become a hit. OK, but there is no gossip. There are no entertaining anecdotes. There is nothing interesting, in fact nothing to interest the average reader who is interested in Hollywood. I said the average reader. These pages and pages of numbers and formulas and musings about box-office openings are no doubt fascinating to accountants and marketing people. I picture them swooning over this book. If books could be compared on a scale with movies, one might say "You're Only As Good.." is the "Citizen Kane" of number crunchers.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Take on the Film Industry - 1970's and Beyond
Review: A fascinating take on the film industry from both an agent's/producer's point of view. A number of the films he's had a direct handle in are amongst my all time favorite list and it's interesting to read backstage stories about the process, how these films came to be and how sometimes it's merely the luck of the draw.

Kudos to Mr. Michael Medavoy for an extremely well written book as well as a long and distinguished career.

His book is enjoyable from start to finish.

Rating:
Summary: Substantial Look at the Movie Business
Review: Hollywood memoirs tend to be annoyingly content free, so this lengthy insider tome from agent, studio chief, and producer Medavoy comes as a pleasant surprise. Ego reasonably in check (at least by studio chief standards) Medavoy (and writer Young) go into substantial detail on how movies get made, why they usually don't, and why when they do they're often dreadful.

Medavoy's perspective is particularly interesting because he's played an active role in the industry since the late 1960's, and so can offer a ringside account of how the business has changed from the counter-culture, director-driven 70's Hollywood to the 6,000 screen opening, watch-the-foreign-grosses film biz of today.

No, you won't get the juicy gossip of Robert Evans' and Peter Biskind's Hollywood histories here, but you will find an enjoyable account of how movies are put together.

Rating:
Summary: Lacking
Review: I didn't like this book. It was bloated and uninsightful. The writing was not particularly good either. This will end up in the $1 book bin.

Rating:
Summary: Middle of the Road Hollywood Bio (Actually 2.5 stars)
Review: I picked this book up hoping for a nice, trashy Hollywood producer insider's look at the business. The anecdotes are interesting but not as juicy as they could and should be. It's a shame this book isn't written very well, given that Mr. Medavoy had a ghost writer. The ghost writer, Mr. Josh Young, should have developed better transition material between the "and then I produced this" stories. I don't know the full background story on their collaboration but I hope Mr. Medavoy's ego didn't overpower Mr. Young's literary sensabilities. The writing felt much too thrown together as if Mr. Young had just listened to the interview tapes or reviewed the interview notes (or however he conducted the interviews) and then typed whatever came to his head with no need or time for extensive revisions. There are too many malapropisms and badly remembered literary phrases and botched grammar conventions that sound kind of like a try for Sam "Goldwynisms" but that fall hopelessly flat on the ear and display no real sharp wit. (i.e., page 61, "journey to the Magi for me"? Maybe they have a different Christmas story in Hollywood, but shouldn't it be "Journey of the Magi"?). There are just too many small writer's mistakes, and ideas that need to be clarified, and so forth. However, it's a good "popcorn" book if you just want to pick it up and snack on a story or two.

Rating:
Summary: Great Insider Hollywood Memoir
Review: I would normally run from a Hollywood memoir as they are usually self-serving and boring. Medavoy's is the exception. He candidly describes his adventures in movie making over a 30 year span and admits his mistakes as well as his triumphs. Surprisingly, the book is very interesting from cover to cover. Few people have had such a long and diverse career in entertainment as Medavoy. If you are interested in the real Hollywood, I heartily recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: Great history of the movies from the 70s till now
Review: If you like movies over the past 30 years, you'll love this book. It's well written by an intelligent man who saw the industry from a perspective few do, as studio head. The man that writes the checks. Medavoy is pretty blunt about how movies get made and how he managed to make bad movies as well as good.

The highlight of the book comes early as he is in charge of production at UA and produces Best Oscar movies repeatedly in his first few years starting with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Rocky. UA specialized in making artist's driven movies which shaped Medavoy's footprint to stay away from youthful, tentpole event movies throughout his career. From Rocky to The Terminator to Silence of the Lambs you will be amazed at the stars and movies that Medavoy worked with. To further this study of movie history, after UA Medavoy worked at Tri-star pictures shortly after it was purchased by Sony working with Peter Guber and Jon Peters. This first-hand account of the Japanese invasion in Hollywood is interesting in and of itself.

Medavoy does a great job of focusing this book on the movies, the personalities involved, and the business side of the industry. He does not burden the reader with unwanted history of his childhood. But he does give great insight into the cultural influences of his job, the intellectual environment he functioned in, and his political involvement with Gary Hart and Bill Clinton. I strongly recommend this book if you like movies, stories of the business side of making movies, or American cultural influences of the last 30 years.

While on vacation a year ago, I played tennis for a couple of days with Medavoy and his business associate Arnie Weems. In my brief encounter with him, it's obvious he is an extremely intelligent man. A somewhat reserved man, who showed no real interest in intellectual discussion but only in relaxing and enjoying his tennis. His associate who was mentioned in the book was much more outgoing and friendly. I believe Medavoy's reserved nature is due to the many people who want to know him to somehow break into the movie business so his reserved nature is understandable.

Rating:
Summary: Lacking
Review: This most interesting memoir of the prominent producer and studio executivewas co-written by Josh Young, a free lance writer. I own the hardback of this volume and enjoyed the photo section which shows the author with various celebrities such as Bill Cinton who allowed him to sit in his desk chair when President of the USA. Mike and his wife, Irena, were guests of the Clintons to spend the night in the White House. Wonder if they got the Lincoln Room -- did he see the ghost or feel Lincoln's spirit?

In another was Robin Williams prior to winning an award for FISHER KING, one of his better films, more than ten years before his eerie role in ONE HOUR PHOTO (see my earlier review of this). A third was of the creative team behind MISSISSIPPI BURNING, which he considered the best film released by a studio in 1989. I agree.

Mike Medavoy put his distinctive mark on more than three hundred films including eight Best Picture Oscar winners. He says that putting together the elements of a film is a succession of best guesses.

Four film companies in which he was a mainstay were explained
in detail as: United Artists' Transamerica;
Sony's Tri Star, later changed to DreamWorks;
Orion, named after the 5-star constellaion in the winter skies.
These three consumed thirty years of his prolific career.
Phoenix: (his Independent company) the image was made out of the match strike from LAWRENCE OF ARABIA combined with the gong of the old J. Arthur Rank logo -- very impressive, similar to the bronze statuary of a phoenix at Belmont College in Nashville, TN

He chose that name not because it was rising from the ashes but simply because he liked the symbol, he says. Coming late in his career of working for others, it would seem that he and his career were indeed on the rise again.

One of his favorite sayings is "a sign of desperation is the desire to huddle in groups, escape thought, and talk about others." So, what else is new?

Rating:
Summary: Poorly Written
Review: While not quite as free of gossip and innuendo as he hopes, this book stays pretty much on the subject, making movies and running the companies that make movies. It could have been longer. He could have discussed more movies and particularly more of the hundred he should be shot for and how and why they got made. But given that he has rarely been the line producer (the person in day to day charge) it provided a valuable look at the business side of The Business.