Charles Fleming, High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Cultures of Excess Reviews

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Good Points: Brilliantly written and very informative about the era

Bad Points: Tends to repeat itself quite a lot

General comments: As a book documenting the amount of Hollywood excess that goes on, High Concept does a very good job of it. Following the life of notorious movie producer Don Simpson (of Simpson Bruckheimer fame) who created High Concept films like Top Gun, Flash Dance and the Beverly Hills Cop movies, it shows all the sex, scandal and drug taking excesses that the folk in Hollywood get up to. Despite mostly focussing on the life and 'high' times of Don Simpson and his nefarious antics behind the scenes on set, it also tells us about a lot of the other characters on the scene that made the 80's and 90's the decades of Hollywood decadence. It's a well written written book by journalist Charles Fleming and pretty much covers all the necessary points that you are looking to hear, without dwelling on some of the less glorious parts but it is definately well worth a read.Others like this are Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind and the infamous You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again