Movie Review: Hot Coffee

Synopsis: Most people think they know the "McDonald's coffee case," but what they don't know is that corporations have spent millions distorting the case to promote tort reform. This documentary reveals how big business, aided by the media, brewed a dangerous concoction of manipulation and lies to protect corporate interests. By following four people whose lives were devastated by the attacks on our courts, the film challenges the assumptions Americans hold about "jackpot justice."

So you think you know the story of the lady who won millions from McDonalds for spilling hot coffee on herself? Well, like me, you probably don't. In fact you probably don't have any of the real facts. Did you know she had third degree burns so bad she had to have skin grafts and could have died? And McDonalds had ignored oved 700 complaints about the temperature of their coffee, who by McDonalds guidelines was supposed to be at 180 degrees? Who drinks coffee that hot? This older woman was no con artist, she was actually a brave lady who stood up for all of us.

More stories like these are all over this film. There is a concerted movement by Karl Rove and the US Chamber of Commerce (do you even know what that is? I didn't) buddies to stack the deck against individual rights in favor of big corporations. It's all under the guise of "tort reform" and they lie to get the sympathy of voters and the general public to make concerned people look like lazy ones who just want big payouts. Some of their tactics have been appalling - and this fascinating documentary film discusses as that. It's infuriating at times.

There's the lawyer, Oliver Diaz, who looses his seat in a state supreme court because he refuses to side with big business. Then there's the woman, Jamie Leigh Jones, who was brutally gang-raped due Haliburton lying to her and intentionally putting her in a violent, dangerous situation because they could get away with it... and then not giving her any justice once the tragedy occured claiming she'd signed away any rights to do anything about it when she was hired. Al Franken disagrees, and helps get her voice heard.

This is the "other side" of the McDonalds coffee tale, along with a lot more interesting information on tort reform, the buying of judicial elections, and the signing away of our legal rights without our knowledge. It's a very eye-opening, engaging and well-made documentary film definitely worth your time.

9/10