Fantastic!

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

If you ever wondered how a whole generation could succumb to a corporation's jingoism, Hitler's ideology, or a cult's Kool-Aid offering, you'll at least learn how we ourselves already have the hook in our mouths from this incredible study of how our government takes away our rights because we all think it's the right thing for them to do.This film is a shock to the system, and as though I had gulped down a steamy hot cup of coffee, I could not sleep after watching it.It's crazy to see the truth when the lies have become common sense. I will never look at the world the same way again.

How the infamous McDonald's hot coffee lawsuit (Liebeck v. McDonalds) and similar cases were exploited as part of a right wing crusade to weaken civil justice.First of all, and most importantly, this documentary clears up people's misunderstandings about the original incident and subsequent court case: we get to see nasty images, and hear of temperatures up to 190 degrees (almost boiling). By explaining the final outcome, we get a sense of the poor media portrayal of how the award process works. Despite how common knowledge sees it, this was not a "frivolous" lawsuit (although the judge was correct in reducing the jury award).We then see how this helped the cause and the rise of tort reform, a generally pro-business issue. More than any other case, Liebeck was the driving force that helped Rep. John Kasich of Ohio (later a governor), and I was not aware how many times President Bush had brought up the issue in various state of the union addresses (and elsewhere).The film goes off on some tangent issues, related in a contingent sense. We learn of Judge Oliver Diaz, which was possibly off-topic, but an interesting story in itself. He was targeted for his views opposing tort reform, and later had two criminal cases brought against him -- seemingly unfairly, as he was acquitted both times. It ruined his career.It was odd seeing Al Franken as a senator helping citizens after meeting him as a comedian. And how "mandatory arbitration" connects to "tort reform" is debatable...Although I think the film as a whole is fair and they make many good points (again, the best one being to clear up the misinformation on Liebeck), I am hesitant to give it a full endorsement. There seems to be very little attempt to get the point of view of the pro-reform folks. Even if the filmmakers think these people are wrong, it does not help the debate by cutting them out of the story.

It took me a few minutes after watching this "documentary" to remember that my mother used to visit friends or have them over, and they were all serving each other tea which they made by boiling water (212 degrees Farenheit...or 22 to 32 degrees hotter than MacDonald's coffee), pouring it into a flimsy teacup and handing it to each other. If any of the ladies had fumbled the tea onto their lap right after the boil, it would have left even worse burns than the old lady in the documentary suffered. I guess that would have been the fault of whomever was serving tea that day! This film was a good example of a public relations effort by the Democrat National Committee or the Obama re-election campaign, but its inability to deal with contrary views (other than as being summarized in a smarmy manner and thrown away as a paper tiger) shows how weak the effort was.

I was also one of the cynics about the Stella Lieback case (the woman who sued MacDonalds after spilling hot coffee on herself), but this film really opened my eyes to what really happened and the wider issues surrounding the case. Frankly, the situation is scary! The idea that corporations have the power to get elected judges who will be sympathetic to their own cause is nothing new, but to hear just how they go about it was astonishing. Also, after hearing about Jamie Leigh Jones and the Halliburton case, I'm definitely checking my work contract for mandatory arbritration clauses. This film is so important, for any consumer anywhere. Another indication of the stranglehold that American corporations have over us.