Rating: 
Summary: Hollywood Spinsters Tell Campfire Stories
Review: A terrific must-read for anyone pursuing a career in film or just the civilian Hollywood enthusiast. This book mergers a nuts-and-bolts broad view of how tinseltown operates with two film titans' war stories. Just don't forget that this is anything but impartial, with Guber's personal stories highlighting his victories and skipping over his failures. Bart comes off as having less to gain than his self-championing co-author, who can't help but toot his own horn at every turn. The narcissism notwithstanding, a quick, informative read.
Rating:
Summary: Solid yet careless in detail
Review: An intriguing book but one that is in definite need of a date checker. You would think that Peter Guber would know what year Midnight Express (his own production) won the Golden Globe (1978, not 1974). The ten other errors regarding release dates, etc. do not lessen the educational value, but do lend a careless feel to the read.
Rating:
Summary: Solid yet careless in detail
Review: An intriguing book but one that is in definite need of a date checker. You would think that Peter Guber would know what year Midnight Express (his own production) won the Golden Globe (1978, not 1974). The ten other errors regarding release dates, etc. do not lessen the educational value, but do lend a careless feel to the read.
Rating: 
Summary: So Disappointing
Review: As a fervent admirer of Peter Bart's previous books, The Gross and Who Killed Hollywood, I was extremely disappointed with this one. I feel he sold out by flacking for Peter Guber, whose exploits were richly detailed in the book "Hit and Run". There's really nothing new in here, and you'd be well advised to avoid it.
Rating:
Summary: So Disappointing
Review: As a fervent admirer of Peter Bart's previous books, The Gross and Who Killed Hollywood, I was extremely disappointed with this one. I feel he sold out by flacking for Peter Guber, whose exploits were richly detailed in the book "Hit and Run". There's really nothing new in here, and you'd be well advised to avoid it.
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, but great web site
Review: Different genre, but this book has a promotional effort on the web that is as significant to the book world as the Blair Witch site was to the movie world. Bravo to the authors and the publishing company for taking the lessons taught in the book and making them accesssible on a completely different scale even if you only have a 56k modem...
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book, Liked Hollywood Dealmaking Too
Review: Guber if FUNNY! Liked it. Another great book is "hollywood dealmaking" by Dina Appleton. Check it out too!
Rating:
Summary: Good Book, Liked Hollywood Dealmaking Too
Review: Guber if FUNNY! Liked it. Another great book is "hollywood dealmaking" by Dina Appleton. Check it out too!
Rating:
Summary: Hollywood Campfire Stories
Review: I had a chance to hear Bart and Guber speak at the Los Angeles Times Book Fair about this book and to meet them at the book signing afterward. My initial interest was in trying to find out if the stories you hear about guys like this are true. Was Guber really the type of person depicted in Kim Masterss book "Hit and Run"? Was Bart really the most hated man in Hollywood as a recent Los Angeles Magazine article suggested. Was Shoot Out (a loaded title if I ever heard one) the chance for these two guys to launch a full scale assault against their numerous critics? If that's what anyone is expecting (I know I was) you might be a bit disappointed. But it's not all bad.This book is an interesting guidebook through the process of making movies from A to Z and I have to admit that it was a pretty enjoyable read. These guys have been in the entertainment business a long time and clearly know a thing or two about a thing or two when it comes to making movies. I found many of the stories and anecdotes amusing and relevant not only to "the industry" (in which I toil away at a menial production job currently) but relevant to many business practices in general. In a way, I respect them for not pandering to the lowest common denominator and writing a Lynda Obst or Mike Medavoy style tell all (in case you haven't noticed I read way to many of these types of books). Shoot Out is not a great book, but for anyone who wants to learn about the true inner workings of Hollywood from two guys who've held a bunch of high level jobs, it is well worth your time...
Rating:
Summary: Hollywood Dirt
Review: I have admired Peter Bart's career for quite some time now. Starting as a producer, then working as a journalist for Variety, he now writes books that try to analyze the many ways in which the Hollywood machine functions. His latest effort, The Shoot Out (written with producer Peter Guber), is a Hollywood tell-all that lacks the fervor and the wit that the other Bart books contained. Overall, this book was done to analyze the ways in which today's Hollywood functions. Both authors have been around for a long time and they have seen the entertainment business change and shift during their years in Hollywood. If you take The Shoot Out to be a Hollywood a textbook, then I can't help but feel a little disappointed, as the information given in here is very generic and already widely known. The authors offer very little insight into the working ways of Hollywood and they tell us very little that is new or that I didn't already know. But the book does get a little more interesting when you take it as a Hollywood tell-all. The authors offer a lot of dirt on Hollywood and they offer many stories taken from the inside, stories that were unknown to me until this day (ie, how The Godfather almost didn't happen because no studio wanted to touch it). And it is when the authors talk about their own experiences in the field that the book picks up a little steam and becomes more entertaining and intriguing. It's obvious that these two men have many stories they want to share, so I wonder why they didn't include more of them. And they know what they are talking about as they are talking from hands-on experience. And yet, I can't help feeling a little disappointed with this effort. Maybe the authors tried to be a little too general to attract a bigger audience, or maybe they simply didn't have enough material to fill in an entire book. Not a great effort, even if it still has its moments.
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