Rating: 
Summary: Burn Hollywood Burn!
Review: (sigh) I am so terribly pedestrian - how could I stand here and say anything but 'cor blimey guv'nor, more please!' to this tale.
Fleming has gone for the tabloid jugular with this book and taken a meaty bite. How could a story such as this be anything but trashy? Thankfully, it makes no bones about what it is. Fleming's day job is writing for Variety, not Literature Boffins R Us!
Don Simpson was a rotund dork who was so insecure he had to pay to get laid and then blow away the memories of the day with white powder - that's pretty much the gist of Fleming's story. In between the lists of Don's bathroom cabinet contents are all the little morsels, amusing anecdotes and fabulously 80s one-liners from the people that really run Hollywood.
The book is pretty much one of Don'n'Jerry's adrenaline fueled films scratched into paper. Which naturally means you read it with your jaw slightly open, jealous of all the big chests, gleaming teeth and fabulous houses that you as the hoi polloi will never have. It sums up the 1980s perfectly, a snapshot of a decade that not so much looked in the mirror, but leaned over it.
Sure, it does nothing for Simpson's character, but then again, a man who lived to such excess as him should not really anticpate that anyone would hold him in high regard. This is the man that inflicted the Tom Cruise of today on us. (And therefore also responsible for Tom Cruise's shabby attempts to get out from under this shadow!) He gave us films that are cinematic fluff. He framed his paychecks. Depth? Like a kiddie swimming pool, my friend.
It seems a shame that so many people would not talk about Don because if anything, this book does needs a bit of balance between stories of 'he injected fat into his penis' and 'he made tapes called Bonnie Beats Mary'. The seamy stories come so thick and fast, one whammy after another - it gets quite tiring. However, it would have been a waste striving for balance - Simpson himself was out of kilter completely and told so many white lies about his life to all and sundry, it's doubtable that anyone really knew him after all.
I love this book though. Sheer entertainment, no thinking required. Fleming ran with what he had - an all out, free for all juggernaut of a story about people who get what they wish for. And in true Hollywood stylee, all those naughty execs who have been named in the book, and survived Don, will not get burned at all, merely hung up in the hall of fame for Hollywood excess. I have realised that I am completely in the wrong line of work! Let me pitch you this.....
Rating: 
Summary: Excess unchecked
Review: Charles Fleming's biography of the fantastically successful Hollywood producer Don Simpson, is not only an illuminating portrait of the man himself, but also a stark lesson in the corrosive power of money and unchecked hedonism.High Concept is written in a tone that is factual yet disparaging, and charts the meteoric rise and subsequent collapse of the ultimate Hollywood 'bad boy'. Don Simpson is indeed a fascinating character - grotesque in his excesses, arrogant beyond belief and with an ego matched only by history's worst dictators. Hollywood was the ideal environment where someone of Simpson's decadence, competitiveness and utter ruthlessness would be allowed to flourish unhindered as long as he was still producing profitable movies. More salacious than the superb Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, the book is more a collection of outrageous antics than an attempt to reveal the underlying psychological reasons for the creation of this Frankenstein's monster. It is a hugely enjoyable read, partly because one is left aghast at what a full life Simpson actually managed to lead in which he transformed the American dream into a personal nightmare. Simpson seemed to devote a large part of his life to the pursuit of pleasure and his addiction to hard core sex, prostitutes and drugs are given ample examination. One cannot help in some way but to admire some of his shenanigans and this is further combined with a sense of smugness that you were not around to pick up the pieces. I would recommend the book for anyone who mindlessly flicks through style magazines and believes that the veneer of wealth and success is a passport for true happiness. Hilarious whilst simultaneously sobering, High Concept is the story of a man who believed that you could never have too much of anything and paid the ultimate price.
Rating:
Summary: An inside look at Hollywood's party culture.....
Review: Don Simpson lived much larger than life. His monthly narcotics bills (both prescription and illegal) along with his patronizing of high-priced escorts via Heidi Fleiss would put the national debt of some small countries to shame! This is a really juicy, tabloid-like expose of someone who in his day was the undisputed king of Hollywood's bad boys. Beyond all the sensationalism though, is a presentation of his and his partner Jerry Bruckheimer's many successful film collaborations. They were the dynamic duo behind such 1980's hit movies as; 'Beverly Hills Cop', 'Top Gun', 'Flashdance' and many others. The reader gets a genuine feel of what goes into movie-making behind the scenes that we as viewers tend to take for granted. As a producer of money-making movies during the 80's, Don Simpson had no equal. Like many men of his stripe however, he also suffered from narciscism, a lack of personal discipline, and a laundry list of excesses which eventually destroyed him. Similar to Elvis Presley, he was found dead in his bathroom of what was reported to the press as a heart attack. What these sources failed to disclose was that his system was completely overloaded at the time with a variety of different drugs to which he'd become dependent. His is a cautionary tale of Hollywood that gets repeated generation after generation with a cliche-like regularity. Nonetheless, his flaws are what make this biography so damned interesting to read!
Rating:
Summary: Proof that therapy doesn't always work.
Review: Fleming's book basically shows that no amount of money, sex and drugs can compensate or fix inner psychic pain. Don Simpson sought therapy but in the end all he wanted to do -- so it seems from this account -- is deaden the pain inside him. Oscar Wilde said that "nothing succeeds like excess" -- well, not always. You've heard it before, but this book really shows you can't buy love or happiness. Simpson had millions, had a job most people only dream about and still -- it wasn't enough. Living here in L.A. I can see how someone with so much moola could fall into a trap of a life driven by drugs and sex -- if you have the cash you can buy anything here -- including prostitutes -- and no one would blink an eye. As for the text and Fleming's writing: he needed a better editor -- there are a few typos and he repetitively describes the same people and incidents over and over. My only major beef with Fleming's book: he gives Simpson way too much credit for developing the "high concept" movie -- but stories have always been told in essentially three acts. Read Aristotle's "Poetics" and see why. He also relies HEAVILY on anonymous sources -- so read this with a huge cup of salt. Recommended for people who want a look at the life of a high-flying Hollywood producer in the 80s and mid-90s.
Rating: 
Summary: Disorganized but an interesting view of hollywood's worse
Review: High Concept is the biography of one of the most hated men in Hollywood, producer Don Simpson. According to the biography, Simpson was an arrogant, bullying, pig of a man who took controlled what kept people entertained despite having now discernible talents himself. As a biography, the book is disappointing. It jumps around a bit too much over the course of its narrative, making it difficult to really build up any sort of cohesive picture of who Simpson was or why he became such a hated figure. For all of the faults ascribed to him (drug abuse, sexism, ignorance, you name it and Simpson apparently suffered from it), he doesn't sound any different from any of the other film producers who have spent the last few years tarnishing Hollywood's reputation. There was one very interesting tidbit that I very much wish Fleming had followed up on. In the early '90s, Simpson placed an anonymous personal ad in the papers. All people who responded got a photography of himself that he was very proud of. That pride came from the fact that he had just lost something like fifty pounds. As sleazy as Simpson appears to have been and as pathetic as that personal ad and photo may have been, there's still a rather strange vulnerability there. This is a man who had made millions and yet, he apparently felt he couldn't find love unless he proved that he was no longer quite as overweight as he had been when he first came to Hollywood. I wondered if he was truly as evil as people said after his death, was he just insecure, or was he just a really stupid person? It has the potential to present an interesting side to everyone's favorite Hollywood sleaze but Fleming never follows up on it. However, the book does work on a more lurid level as a gossipy tour of Hollywood's drug-and-sex underground. If you're interested in finding out which stars partied with which drug dealers this is the book for you! (Of course, I'm interested in all of that so I enjoyed the book.)
It was strange to witness the almost incredible joy that seemed to spread through the entertainment world when producer Don Simpson overdosed in the mid-90s. Usually, even the most misogynistic of human beings are at least awarded a few kind sentiments at the time of their passing but Simpson got none of that. Film insiders pointed to his reputation as a bully, his out-of-control drug habit, and especially his habit of beating prostitutes. Meanwhile, self-appointed film "experts" accused the man of basically destroying Hollywood by making mindless, predictable actions films that produced a lot of profit and little art. Never mind the fact that while the guy was alive, nobody seemed to mind inviting him to their parties or making him a partner at his studios. Never mind, that for all the talk about high concept films are the greatest evil known to man, we still spend our hard-earned money to see them. Face it, just because we spent the hour after Pearl Harbor talking about how much we hated it, that doesn't change the fact that we paid our money and we're never getting it back. As always, it seems a lot easier to judge and condemn someone else's faults even as we go out of our way to make those faults possible.
Rating:
Summary: Disorganized but an interesting view of hollywood's worse
Review: High Concept is the biography of one of the most hated men in Hollywood, producer Don Simpson. According to the biography, Simpson was an arrogant, bullying, pig of a man who took controlled what kept people entertained despite having now discernible talents himself. As a biography, the book is disappointing. It jumps around a bit too much over the course of its narrative, making it difficult to really build up any sort of cohesive picture of who Simpson was or why he became such a hated figure. For all of the faults ascribed to him (drug abuse, sexism, ignorance, you name it and Simpson apparently suffered from it), he doesn't sound any different from any of the other film producers who have spent the last few years tarnishing Hollywood's reputation. There was one very interesting tidbit that I very much wish Fleming had followed up on. In the early '90s, Simpson placed an anonymous personal ad in the papers. All people who responded got a photography of himself that he was very proud of. That pride came from the fact that he had just lost something like fifty pounds. As sleazy as Simpson appears to have been and as pathetic as that personal ad and photo may have been, there's still a rather strange vulnerability there. This is a man who had made millions and yet, he apparently felt he couldn't find love unless he proved that he was no longer quite as overweight as he had been when he first came to Hollywood. I wondered if he was truly as evil as people said after his death, was he just insecure, or was he just a really stupid person? It has the potential to present an interesting side to everyone's favorite Hollywood sleaze but Fleming never follows up on it. However, the book does work on a more lurid level as a gossipy tour of Hollywood's drug-and-sex underground. If you're interested in finding out which stars partied with which drug dealers this is the book for you! (Of course, I'm interested in all of that so I enjoyed the book.)
It was strange to witness the almost incredible joy that seemed to spread through the entertainment world when producer Don Simpson overdosed in the mid-90s. Usually, even the most misogynistic of human beings are at least awarded a few kind sentiments at the time of their passing but Simpson got none of that. Film insiders pointed to his reputation as a bully, his out-of-control drug habit, and especially his habit of beating prostitutes. Meanwhile, self-appointed film "experts" accused the man of basically destroying Hollywood by making mindless, predictable actions films that produced a lot of profit and little art. Never mind the fact that while the guy was alive, nobody seemed to mind inviting him to their parties or making him a partner at his studios. Never mind, that for all the talk about high concept films are the greatest evil known to man, we still spend our hard-earned money to see them. Face it, just because we spent the hour after Pearl Harbor talking about how much we hated it, that doesn't change the fact that we paid our money and we're never getting it back. As always, it seems a lot easier to judge and condemn someone else's faults even as we go out of our way to make those faults possible.
Rating:
Summary: The Secrets of My Excess
Review: Learn how to become a movie mogul, get laid every hour, do cocaine by the second and eventually die on the toilet just like the "King" himself. Truth be told it is a terrible thought that this best-selling Hollywood expose book is based on a dead man written shortly after his death. It's a fair topic - a tab bit tasteless - but fair, because when you are a multi-million dollar figure in Hollywood who has spent money and time on the latest fashion, fast cars, diets and diamonds to get your face into Variety press, then when things come tumbling down, or you go the way of the dodo, you can't expect writers like Charles Fleming to look the other way - and Fleming certainly does not! This book is cruel. It does nothing for Simpson or his family and friends. If you know the man well or have been close to him then this is nothing more than despicable tabloid trash. However the rest of the world may not see it that way. We have an interest. How did the most powerful movie producer in Hollywood live? What made him tick? What did he eat for breakfast and what do people really think about him? Fleming is able to give us an angle, although it is an extremely limited one. It seems that anybody who had a good thing to say about this man just shut up and didn't want to talk to Fleming during his research. Unfortunately, the end result is that the only people who wanted to talk are those who didn't like Simpson much and Fleming's rendition of this producers life is marred almost by a secular group, who... well... to put to bluntly... hated the man's guts. So this book ends up being pure sleaze with a big capitol "S". Fleming for life of him is trying to tell the reader something along the lines of - "Look, I am trying to find the man's good side, really, truly I am, but there are just so many people who hate the guy and want to say something that I just can not avoid them, really I can't." and then to break the monotony of all the bad press he is giving to Simpson, Fleming manages to find a hooker who says - "Gee, he was a sweet man who paid me well in bed." or some burnt out junky who says - "Simpson, oh yeah (sniff) that dude (sniff) we had a really crazy time together (sniff) and he was really nice to people who had powder (sniff)." As soon as Fleming hears the words - Cruise, Gere, Smith, Murphy, Schwarzenegger, Gibson, Stallone, Willis, Johnson he is off like the wind to find out what is there. To be honest this book takes no prisoners and if you are involved in the industry then Fleming is going to give you a Royal shafting with cheese.... extra CHEESE. When all is said and done, and you feel like you have read more Sleaze than all of the editions of National Enquirer put together, you might actually discover that Fleming has a moral to his story - that the life of Don Simpson, although a successful one, is a lesson to learn for all who venture down the path of excess. It is not a bad lesson to learn, however out of millions upon millions of readers who have scanned these pages, maybe one or two will ever get close to touching the royal robes and certainly it is odds on favorite that they will just be made cannon fodder for the mysterious monsters that haunt Fleming's world of fame. This is swill with cream on top... but its still swill... however, it is excellent swill at that. So gobble up your swill and have your fill. When you are sick with yourself afterwards maybe you should pay more attention to that which you are eating and using, or you might end up like our friend here. How ironic this book turns out to be. A paradox that is talking about the very things that we should try and stay away from.
Rating:
Summary: Worth the info
Review: Poorly written, very poorly edited, but well worth the information conveyed. With better writing and editing, it obviously could've been a better read, but the details given about politics in movie studios and the excesses of life in 1980's Hollywood make the book worth purchasing regardless. Almost entirely, the book doesn't hold back. It names names, places, and dirty deeds done. Author doesn't seem to have any personal vendettas against Hollywood or Simpson and therefore the book reads relatively objectively. Fleming pretty much criticizes everyone equally, while also finding time for some sparse praise.
Rating:
Summary: 2nd best book i've ever read
Review: This book gives a lot of dirt, and it is good to get dirty once in awhile. The only problem, if there is one, is that after reading the book, Don Simpson seems almost like someone you wished you would have known personally. You will end up wishing he wouldn't have died.
Rating:
Summary: 2nd best book i've ever read
Review: This book gives a lot of dirt, and it is good to get dirty once in awhile. The only problem, if there is one, is that after reading the book, Don Simpson seems almost like someone you wished you would have known personally. You will end up wishing he wouldn't have died.
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