MovieChat Forums > Used Cars (1980) Discussion > the really dumb part (SPOILERS I GUESS)

the really dumb part (SPOILERS I GUESS)


I was sort of entertained by this film until I got taken out of it when the woman is apparently arrested for false advertising.

False advertising isn't a criminal matter, at least when it comes to merely lying about the number of products for sale, at least not yet, in any state as far as I know. It's a civil matter.

It makes me sad that either the people who made this movie don't know the difference between civil and criminal proceedings, or that they felt the audience didn't know the difference. Either way, it tells you a bit about why the U.S. suffers from overcriminalization--we have the highest incarceration rate in the world partially because people here for some reason have such trouble even imagining any solution to any social problem other than treating it like a criminal issue and locking people up.

And then, given that it is treated like a criminal matter in the film, it's just stupid to have a private attorney prosecuting a criminal defendant on behalf of a private citizen. I've seen this occur in a couple of films, and it's incredibly dumb. Each state has prosecutors that prosecute alleged criminals on behalf of the people of the state.

And you can save your breath if you're one of those nitwits that's going to say something like, "It's just a comedy, so stop taking it so seriously and let it go."

There's no need for this level of stupidity, and the fact that she is arrested and in handcuffs instead of sued doesn't add anything funny to the film--it just makes people who are not retarded and know the difference between criminal and civil law crinkle their brows and takes them out of the film. It's just stupid. The fact that it's a comedy is not an excuse for the inclusion of completely unfunny stupidity.

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It's just a comedy, so stop taking it so seriously and let it go.

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