Rating: 
Summary: Brutally honest - and ultimately depressing - insider diary.
Review: From reading "Hollywood Animal," readers will probably surmise that the upper echelons of Hollywood's power stratum - actors, agents, directors, studio executives - are a group of morally and ethically bankrupt, no-talent sub-humans who will lie, steal, cheat - and occasionally bully - their way to fame and fortune (and most of the time they'll be right). Eszterhas is probably correct that he'll best be remembered for a memorable scene involving Sharon Stone (from "Basic Instinct" - you know which one) that he, in fact, did not even write. Except for a few now-dated and generally forgotten box office hits (ie "Flashdance," "Jagged Edge"), the book also demonstrates that Eszterhas and many in Hollywood can often fail upwards and get extremely wealthy in the process. Hollywood's the only town where you can consistently produce more flops than hits and get paid more each time. No doubt, "Hollywood Animal" is a thrilling, fast-paced, brutally honest insider account and must-read that's like a cathartic personal payback to those who have scorned him (made possible by loads of "F-you money"). And it sure made me wonder about what he must have left out. However, I did find myself quickly skimming over his personal childhood family flashbacks as only the Hollywood parts interested me. Ultimately it left me feeling depressed about the movie biz and longing for an earlier time when the general public was only interested in quality films and didn't know, care, or talk about weekend boxoffice results, actor salaries, first dollar gross participation, etc.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing Look at Hollywood
Review: This is an amazingly brutal and honest look at Hollywood. I read many books about the business of Hollywood and find it facinating. In this genere, Hollywood Animal is an excellent choice that is as good as they come and is as honest and revealing as any books that we consider to be the top in the genre such as My Fractured Life and You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again. If you are entertained by entertainment, this is a great choice.
Rating: 
Summary: ***
Review: Some interesting bits, some informative bits, some entertaining bits, but a lot of dull stretches, and the endless macho posturing gets really tiresome. It's always laughable to me when people like Esterhas (and John Milius and Tom Clancy and G. Gordon Liddy) who worship at the the alter of machismo assume that all who read them share their same "code" and will be struck with awe at their "impressive" feats. So it impresses Esterhas that Robert Mitchum once exercised flatulence in the face of a woman on a plane who dared ask him to stop smoking. Wow! That Robert Mitchum is such a rebel! Ooooh! Ahhhhh! Yeah, that's the type thing Esterhas admires. If you do, too, then maybe you'll like this book. I didn't.
Rating:
Summary: Finally.......Behind The Veil
Review: I've read quite a bit about the book, but was surprised to learn after reading it that it's more like a tutorial on screenwriting and moviemaking in general. The Hollywood insights, anectdotes and hard cold facts are something anyone in the entertainment business should read if they want to survive or, hell, even thrive. Joe's entertaining style and no-nonsense approach makes this book a must read!!!
Rating:
Summary: Too Hot for Hollywood.
Review: You won't put this book down! If you ever wanted to know the juicy little secrets about the famous and infamous in Hollywood, read this. A uniquely written tell tale book that's gonna make Hollywood squirm. And oh, how we like to see them squirm. From the highest paid writer in the biz, he trashes everyone from stars to studio heads and even himself, in this rag to riches story about a kid from Cleveland with a talent for words and a flair for controversy. Sharp! Witty! Brutally honest writing!!!
Rating:
Summary: Fast Life to Flyover in 700 pages
Review: When writing reviews I try to focus on two criteria: "Did I learn something or did it entertain me." Too many reviewers seem to relay their moral or political views over the subject. Joe Eszterhas is an easy target to dislike for writing controversial movies like Basic Instinct and Showgirls. I'm doing him a favor by leaving out flops like Jade and Sliver.But this book accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. It is an autobiography that highlights the three most compelling stories of his life, "his rise from Hungarian immigrant and the bizarre past of his father, his life in the fast lane of Hollywood, and his family life with two different wives. I was absolutely entertained by the Hollywood section and learned quite a bit in the other two. This book will appeal to lovers of the Hollywood lifestyle or business environment. It's all here. A novelist gets a call from an agent who believes he could write screenplays and a new career is born. In the next 15 years he has written a box office smash and arguably the most controversial movie of the 90s. But along the way he must learn the Hollywood dance of fighting for your life when many times it's predetermined that you will fail. For example, when Sly Stallone steals his screen credit on his first made movie. But more importantly, the controversial altercation with the then King of Hollywood, Mike Ovitz. This section is fascinating reading if you have interest in how the business side of Hollywood works! The Ovitz feud could be considered one of the top Hollywood stories of the last fifteen years as it started Ovitz's downfall. Of course, there is plenty of name-dropping and stories told of life in Hollywood. Particularly, Sharon Stone and her romance that breaks up a marriage. And Joe Eszterhas does get in the act of constant cheating, drinking and drugging while maintaining the facade of a happy home life in Northern California. Fascinating stuff! But for all the glamour of Hollywood, this is still an autobiography of a poor immigrant family that comes to America after World War II and lives in poverty in New York and later Cleveland. As Joe struggles to fit in the groundwork is laid for the heart wrenching family secret that is exposed when Joe is caring for his father. It is emotionally wrenching for Eszterhas and could easily have been left out of the book, as it doesn't enhance sales. But an autobiography correctly done is soul-cleansing so Eszterhas doesn't pull any punches and brings this compelling story to the book just as he had brought it to some of his lesser-known screenplays. Blessed to have had two good marriages, this book tells the emotionally draining tale of how one ended and another began and the effect on wives, husband and kids. It's always sad to see this as someone always ends up hurt. But as much as Eszterhas wants to disavow Hollywood, his break-up is done in typical "screenplay" fashion and is very intriguing to the reader. I typically like to read books that are 200 to 300 pages. This is a real commitment at over 700 pages. But it's worth the time commitment to get involved in the story. One of the best books I have read from a man that will always be vilified by a large percent of the population based upon the morals of his life. But as he now sits in suburban Cleveland, a survivor of cancer with a new young family, he is as much an American as a member of the Moral Majority. I applaud Eszterhas on this fascinating book and sharing both the good and bad parts with the readers.
Rating: 
Summary: A story of greed
Review: Joe Eszterhas had it all, and more, and then blew it in a mysterious way. He found happiness with the woman he calls the sexiest on the planet (Naomi) and seems now to have retired from the business of screenwriting, a business which made him the highest paid screenwriter in the world--not once, but twice. He has left a legacy of interesting films, some good, some bad, but his memoir of writing them (and of his cathartic childhood, the son of Hungarian emigres) is just plain stupendous. It's one book that should have been two, or possibly three. If you wrote, "Jagged Edge," "Flashdance," and or "Basic Instinct," to name only the hits, wouldn't you try to be more discreet about it? And the flops are a true laundry list of disaster. Only in Hollywood could such an auteur not only survive, but thrive. Very few screenwriters can boast of having sex with Sharon Stone, but Joe E. really rubs it in. For all that, his picture of Marty Ransohoff trying to destroy the life and career of Glenn Close is truly a memorable one. I guess Ransohoff won after all, because today one hears as little of Glenn Close as one does of Joe Eszterhas. If you like Hungarian sentiment, add a star. This is almost the Magyar version of Allen Ginsberg's "Kaddish."
Rating:
Summary: Addictively Entertaining
Review: One of Hollywood's highest paid, record-breaking screenplay writers, Joe Eszterhas recounts his life. An incredible story of a boy that was born into the poverty of WWII refugee camps in Hungary who becomes a multi-millionnaire in America. Joe gives the reader rare insights into how Hollywood operates through his vivid storytelling abilities about his experiences in the Motion Picture Industry: Find out how Jennifer Beals was cast over Demi Moore for Flashdance.
Learn how Joe made millions on his movie scripts, even after poor reviews and lack of production.
Discover what goes on behind the scenes. Joe was truly a "Hollywood Animal" and this book is all about his journey there and beyond. Although over 700 pages long, a very fast read. You will be glad you got this one... ADDICTIVE.
Rating:
Summary: A True Hollywood Story
Review: This excellent memoir holds few punches or salacious detail, wavering between a score settling, bridge burning act of revenge against most of Hollywood and a deathbed confession.
Rating:
Summary: Ich bin ein schmuck
Review: Joe Eszterhas is his own paparazzi. In fact, this is about the only thing he forgot to claim he invented - the new genre of autopaparazziography. This book would have been more honestly entitled "Hollywood Schmuck."
Eszterhas's schmuckery is detailed ad nauseam throughout Hollywood Animal, and there is no need to summarize it here. While styled as a self-critical tell-all, the book is one extended whine. Eszterhas does not have the courage of his crimes; in the best tradition of death row inmates everywhere, he ends up repenting all and delivering indignantly pious lectures after a lifetime of luridly detailed lying, fakery, brutality, abuse, betrayal, and backstabbing. Every morsel of regret is accompanied by a king's repast of denial, evasion, moral equivalence, poor-mouthing, and blaming his endless cast of victims.
Nevertheless, the book merits five stars because of its sheer chutzpah, the only core value that Eszterhas exhibits consistently throughout his life, and because it is the greatest work to date of the autopaparazziography genre.
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