Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Tyreece Hulme One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Morphman Morgan I saw one thing and one thing only in this documentary: Assigning blame to anyone but yourself.It goes over how damage caps on lawsuits is wrong, how ridiculous it is that a boy born with brain damage didn't get enough money to live on the rest of his life and how unfair it is that the woman who burned herself on coffee didn't get the 2.7 million USD she was promised at first, but fails to even once mention the main issue: Who was really to blame?Let's take it from the top down! The Coffee Case: An elderly woman is handed her coffee in a car by her nephew at a parking lot. She decides to put the coffee in her lap while trying to get the lid off, so she can pour some cream inside. The cup tips over and she gets 4th degree burns over her entire upper legs.The degree of the burns, the medical bills, the heat of the coffee and the number of complaints about the heat of the coffee has nothing to do with who's at fault for this woman spilling coffee in her lap, thou that is the "evidence" used in both the trial and this documentary. They claim it's McDonald's fault that she spilled her coffee because the coffee machine was "set too high". If she had dropped the cup because of the heat it would have been one thing, but all I kept thinking while they laid out the evidence is that it has nothing to do with who's at blame. They might as well have sued Ford because there were no cup holders or the company making the paper cups.Also, the reason she sued was because McDonald's had given her 800$ without even questioning who's fault it was, but her medical bills went up to 10 000$ and she couldn't pay it. She even admitted herself that the reason she sued was not because she thought they were at fault, but because she couldn't afford the medical bills, but this documentary makes it seem like that is the reason it was McDonald's fault!Exhibit 2, the boy born with brain damage: A mother pregnant with twins feels less movement at night. She goes on the second day to the doctor who listens to the heart beats and couldn't find anything wrong there. She waits a week and the movements had been less and less each day, so she goes back. An ultrasound confirmed that one boy didn't get enough oxygen and she was rushed to the ER for a C-section and the boy came out with brain damage.What the documentary tries to prove here is that the cap on damages is wrong, because the mother sued the doctor and the jury thought 5.6 million USD was enough for taking care of the boy the rest of his life, but the cap on damages that the state had brought that sum down to 2.7 million USD instead.Again, no real evidence that the doctor actually caused the brain damage through malpractice, other than the fact that she had two previous lawsuits filed against her. The documentary only mentions the previous lawsuits, but fails to go into any details about them. What was the background for those? Who won those cases? What had happened?But instead of trying to find any evidence that the doctor had actually done anything wrong that caused the brain damage, they decide that previous complaints and lawsuits are enough evidence that this is true.Next one, damage caps vs medical bills: Again, using faulty logic they try to prove that no cap on damages doesn't mean medical prices go up. Their reasoning being that in Texas in 2003 they put in a cap for non-economic damage (this is the arbitrary sum a successful lawsuit generates that cannot be measured in money) and in 2004 the people spent more money on medical care.They are completely satisfied with keeping that as proof without going into any surrounding circumstances, such as was the prices really higher or did more people seek medical attention, or if anything else happened around the same time, such as legislations that forced companies to pay for medical care. They don't even go into what kind of medical care they included, if it was only emergency costs or if they included plastic surgery for beauty operations, holistic medicine and other non-vital medical care.It might just be the fact that doctors and nurses no longer fear being sued that makes them perform their jobs better and enables the hospitals to take on cases they otherwise wouldn't take on, therefore increasing the number of patients treated that causes the overall spending on medical care to increase.In short, this documentary is heavily biased, has no factual grounds to stand on and doesn't even try to prove their claims with anything resembling facts. Instead they play the Blame Game and just point their finger at the "evil corporations", to such length that they actually try to convince you that the "tort reform" is wrong just because some of the biggest corporations in the US is for the reform and have a financial gain in it. Of course they have a financial gain in not being sued left and right for things they have no control over. Does that mean it is wrong to prevent unnecessary lawsuits? Does that mean it is right for doctors, EMT's, police and business owners to live in fear of lawsuits?Unless you want to be shaking your head in frustration, skip this one. There are better ways to waste 82 minutes of your life!

salmon62 This is an interesting documentary, although it is misrepresentative in its description and summary. Its not simply about the infamous "hot coffee" lawsuit against Macdonald's.I thought it was a movie which revealed how foolish and greedy people are in their civil lawsuits. I thought the movie would reveal the woman to be a conniver. In fact, this movie is a slap at conservative political ploys to reduce lawsuit damages, and manipulate the justice system.The movie strikes at Karl Rove Inc, and the US Chamber of Commerce. While this is a valid complaint, there is a lot of greed in the personal injury realm, but that is not really addressed. Pretty sly indeed. While I feel the Macdonald's lawsuit was righteous after seeing the evidence, I don't feel like tort reform is a bad thing.Why? Completely unrestrained punitive awards do affect business. But, the movie doesn't offer any ideas for what dollar amounts would be reasonable for the cases of injuries it presents. The woman in the Macdonald's case settled after her 4 million dollar award was reduced to 450,000 dollars. Yes, she suffered and is entitled to punitive damages. But how much? There has to be some balance to these awards, and that is why corporate interests insist on award caps. How about some compromise in setting some type of limits? There has to be a compromise between the poor brain-damaged kid receiving several hundred thousand then going on Medicaid, and a ridiculously high jury award based on emotion. One thing is certain to me. Insurance companies are dishonest at their core.The movie demonstrates that they do not pass on the savings to consumers, ever. This is a good documentary. Just make sure you employ critical thinking while viewing. Documentaries have become so sneaky and political its scary.

Lee Eisenberg The story of the New Mexico woman who spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonald's was widely viewed as the stuff of comedy, but it turns out that the story goes way beyond that. Using bumper sticker phrases like "tort reform" -- often conceived by the likes of Frank Luntz and Karl Rove -- the special interests sensationalized stories of "frivolous lawsuits" and convinced state legislatures to make it harder to sue, while also placing caps on damages, installing business-friendly judges, and often creating mandatory arbitration (signing away your right to sue).Susan Saladoff's documentary "Hot Coffee" looks at these issues. Saladoff organizes it like Michael Moore's documentaries (interviews with the subjects interspersed with cultural icons). Among other things, people often voted for tort reform without realizing that they were the ones getting screwed. Not only that, people often don't even know what a tort is.The point is that our justice system has gotten completely manipulated. See if you don't feel a chill run down your back while watching this.

Danny Blankenship Sure I know the story we live in a world I sue you you sue me! It's all to common and it's true that many people will fake or play hurt to collect money from someone or some company. So it may be true that our system of awarding folks money for damages within the legal system is abused and gotten out of hand. Yet they are some cases where after seeing you just get steamed up and mad and you want to stand up and fight for the people against the companies and corporations. And in Susan Saladoff's recent HBO documentary "Hot Coffee" you see the evidence of the wrong doing of companies and corporations, as they are now using the law more and more to their advantage thru politics, tort reform, and arbitration. Highlighted is the well known mid 90's McDonald's coffee case from New Mexico. And I must agree when company temperatures are so hot that they cause burns that require skin grafts, then the injured is entitled a money settlement and rightfully justice.This documentary is informative and educational as it showcases the legal system and how people and the courts are affected by lawsuits. It's supported by newscast clips, interviews from legal and committee experts and touching is seeing how many people are done wrong by bad medical practices and corporations with arbitration rules. And the issue and debate of tort reform is interesting you must think should their really be a limit on it? And interesting and revealing is seeing how politics and the court system are becoming intersecting as more and more business type judges are being elected to the courts who are supported by the corporations so that they can be sided with over the common man.No matter what your stance is on the issue of tort, political connection, arbitration and wanting to file lawsuits, after watching this hot steamy revealing documentary "Hot Coffee" you will probably feel like standing up for the little people in their fight against the wrongs and personal physical damages that companies and corporations bring against them. It's clear it shows that the devil is many corporations best friend and arbitration is it's pitchfork. And showcasing tort reform is now a hot political topic everywhere. Overall "Hot Coffee" is one hot steamy documentary not to miss it's tasty energy will inspire you to fight for your legal rights just like those hurt and injured by political corporate greed.