Rating: 
Summary: not a high-brow read
Review: This book is solidly OK. Definitely not high-brow reading but not terribly embarrassing to be seen with on your train ride to work either. My problems with this book stem mostly from the only semi-chronilogical order Fleming tells the story in. For instance, Simpson was in and out of rehab through much of the late 80s and early 90s but it isn't discussed until one of the last chapters; so while you're reading about, say, the production of Days of Thunder you're not really made aware that Simpson was "detoxing" somewhere, making it a more difficult read. Fleming will devote one chapter to drugs, one to sex and then another to business affairs so the reader is left to reconcile all these different aspects of Simpson's life on their own. Also, the meat of the book is taken from sources already published elsewhere and with all the footnotes you start to get the feeling you're reading a school report. Fleming only gets direct quotes mostly from tier-two players, such as small-time actors and prostitutes that knew Simpson in one way or another. But in the end the book does give an accurate portrayal of the life a big Hollywood cheese and is definitely worth a read.
Rating: 
Summary: SIMPSON IS A MANIAC!
Review: Why is it I so love people who live their lives like sick maniacs and then burn out in a blaze of glory? Seriously, this is a must-read for anyone who wants to know hollywood history. Simpson is responsible for "high-concept" pictures: the kind of movie you can explain to someone else in a second, and doesn't require any brains to understand.Neither does this book.
Rating:
Summary: Shallow bio of a supposedly shallow producer
Review: Yes, Don Simpson, as in Simpson-Bruckheimer, the creative team that did much to shape how movies are made. From the early 1980's, Simspon-Bruckheimer produced a string of incredible hits - "Officer and a Gentleman", "Flashdance", "Top Gun" and the Beverly Hills Cop flicks - that seemed universally derided yet implausibly popular. While Jerry Bruckheimer seems to be the man who dealt with the nuts and bolts of production, this book credits Don Simpson with the brainstorms that turned uninspired treatments into blockbuster films (like casting America's favorite black comedian to star in a police-action movie originally slated to star Sylvester Stallone). True to its title, this book focuses on the now late Don Simpson who seems literally to have died of excess (sex, drugs and food). More than the story of the films he made, "High Concept" tells the story of Simpson and how he came to Hollywood from unspectacular origins to become a star himself. When that dream proved impossible (he cast himself in a key role in one of his own flicks - virtually all of his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor) and his own status as a power-player seemed diminishe, the excesses that had already become an established part of his life came to dominate it entirely. Simpson's weight yoyoed, wrecking his metabolism and compounding the strain inflicted by narcotics. Drunk driving accidents and a notorious addiction for hardcore sex further helped wreck Simpson's already suffering career. By 1995, Simpson was on deathwatch, and his ultimate overdose seemed less of a tragedy than release. "High Concept" is actually two halves of two different stories, much in the same way that Simpson was half of two different people. First there was the Don Simpson who helped turn an incomprehensible script into a pop-driven blockbuster ("Flashdance") and solidified the importance of hit soundtracks for films that aren't really about music. Then there is Don Simpson the creep, ceaselessly vain and pathetically vulnerable. The second Simpson munches on junk food at all hours of the night, hires prostitutes for S&M, drops in and out of rehab and endlessly pines for the big break that eludes him. Despite the big money he earned, Simpson clearly understood that his was only one more level under the true power players. Resentment and reams of cash helped fuel Simpson's fatal addictions. Unfortunately, Fleming does little to flesh out either of these two people. Simpson and Bruckheimer's earlier successes were unlikely in the sense that they were a surprise even to those who made them. Fleming does little to illuminate the creative processes behind their films, though it's unclear whose fault that is - Fleming's for giving short shrift to a man with a shrewd sense of the American moviegoer, or Simpson who was both simply uncreative and lucky for a very long time. Instead, Fleming seems to want to skip what he must think is the stronger part of the story - the one about Don Simpson's late-night binges of rough sex and Ring-Dings. Fleming gives each half too little focus, because he believes that each is part of a singular whole - that Simpson's story is merely an extreme example of what happens in Hollywood all the time. (Hollywood offers everyone the illusion of a chance to reinvent themselves, and an endless reservoir of addiction and pain for the point after the illusions are dashed.) But I'm not convinced - Jerry Bruckheimer continued churning out monumentally successful flicks ("Armageddon", "The Rock", "Bad Boys", "Crimson Tide" and "Pearl Harbor"); Nobody seems to think that Hollywood powerhouses Speilberg and Lucas are trapped in a coke and alcohol fueled nightmare; The worst of Simpson's excesses appear when his career as a moviemaker seems about over. Fleming seems to chart the flop "Days of Thunder" as the point-of-no-return. A glaring disappointment after the success of "Top Gun", "Thunder" was to mark Simpson's acting debut, playing one of Tom Cruise's NASCAR competitors. Instead, editing revealed the stark limits of Simpson's talent for both acting and self-invention. But the two Simpsons never become one, and Fleming's anecdotes of Hollywood as Babylon aren't as illuminating as simply lurid. Ironically, Fleming's book seems a failure because it follows the traditional Simpson/Bruckheimer model too closely - an unending stream of mindless pleasure without direction or substance - but not so close that it's anywhere near as poignant as "An Officer", as funny as "Cop" or as high powered as "Top Gun".
Rating:
Summary: Shallow bio of a supposedly shallow producer
Review: Yes, Don Simpson, as in Simpson-Bruckheimer, the creative team that did much to shape how movies are made. From the early 1980's, Simspon-Bruckheimer produced a string of incredible hits - "Officer and a Gentleman", "Flashdance", "Top Gun" and the Beverly Hills Cop flicks - that seemed universally derided yet implausibly popular. While Jerry Bruckheimer seems to be the man who dealt with the nuts and bolts of production, this book credits Don Simpson with the brainstorms that turned uninspired treatments into blockbuster films (like casting America's favorite black comedian to star in a police-action movie originally slated to star Sylvester Stallone). True to its title, this book focuses on the now late Don Simpson who seems literally to have died of excess (sex, drugs and food). More than the story of the films he made, "High Concept" tells the story of Simpson and how he came to Hollywood from unspectacular origins to become a star himself. When that dream proved impossible (he cast himself in a key role in one of his own flicks - virtually all of his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor) and his own status as a power-player seemed diminishe, the excesses that had already become an established part of his life came to dominate it entirely. Simpson's weight yoyoed, wrecking his metabolism and compounding the strain inflicted by narcotics. Drunk driving accidents and a notorious addiction for hardcore sex further helped wreck Simpson's already suffering career. By 1995, Simpson was on deathwatch, and his ultimate overdose seemed less of a tragedy than release. "High Concept" is actually two halves of two different stories, much in the same way that Simpson was half of two different people. First there was the Don Simpson who helped turn an incomprehensible script into a pop-driven blockbuster ("Flashdance") and solidified the importance of hit soundtracks for films that aren't really about music. Then there is Don Simpson the creep, ceaselessly vain and pathetically vulnerable. The second Simpson munches on junk food at all hours of the night, hires prostitutes for S&M, drops in and out of rehab and endlessly pines for the big break that eludes him. Despite the big money he earned, Simpson clearly understood that his was only one more level under the true power players. Resentment and reams of cash helped fuel Simpson's fatal addictions. Unfortunately, Fleming does little to flesh out either of these two people. Simpson and Bruckheimer's earlier successes were unlikely in the sense that they were a surprise even to those who made them. Fleming does little to illuminate the creative processes behind their films, though it's unclear whose fault that is - Fleming's for giving short shrift to a man with a shrewd sense of the American moviegoer, or Simpson who was both simply uncreative and lucky for a very long time. Instead, Fleming seems to want to skip what he must think is the stronger part of the story - the one about Don Simpson's late-night binges of rough sex and Ring-Dings. Fleming gives each half too little focus, because he believes that each is part of a singular whole - that Simpson's story is merely an extreme example of what happens in Hollywood all the time. (Hollywood offers everyone the illusion of a chance to reinvent themselves, and an endless reservoir of addiction and pain for the point after the illusions are dashed.) But I'm not convinced - Jerry Bruckheimer continued churning out monumentally successful flicks ("Armageddon", "The Rock", "Bad Boys", "Crimson Tide" and "Pearl Harbor"); Nobody seems to think that Hollywood powerhouses Speilberg and Lucas are trapped in a coke and alcohol fueled nightmare; The worst of Simpson's excesses appear when his career as a moviemaker seems about over. Fleming seems to chart the flop "Days of Thunder" as the point-of-no-return. A glaring disappointment after the success of "Top Gun", "Thunder" was to mark Simpson's acting debut, playing one of Tom Cruise's NASCAR competitors. Instead, editing revealed the stark limits of Simpson's talent for both acting and self-invention. But the two Simpsons never become one, and Fleming's anecdotes of Hollywood as Babylon aren't as illuminating as simply lurid. Ironically, Fleming's book seems a failure because it follows the traditional Simpson/Bruckheimer model too closely - an unending stream of mindless pleasure without direction or substance - but not so close that it's anywhere near as poignant as "An Officer", as funny as "Cop" or as high powered as "Top Gun".
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