Very disappointing...

To me, this movie is perfection.

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

I'll tell you why so serious

There is no reason in this piece of film. Only hysterics. More than an hour of emotion to feed the people who want to be angry at something.There was an electric car. It is gone. The audience gets to see the crushed car bodies nicely done from the air. How was that car? There is no technical description. No parameters. Just the feeling of an actor. Sure, as a rich actor he probably droves lots of cars, but the comparison was probably left on the editing floor.And that miracle car was literally crushed. Why? No answer. The gesture is so dramatic and so illogical and the speakers talk about the before and after, never why.As for specialists? A politician who does not like the air he breathes so he builds a career in that place. Reliable. Was he one of the paper pushers who helped kill that electric car? Who cares! He is on "our side" so he must be a "good guy". Other technical people: an actor, one so busy you can see him taking time to become an engineer. And a columnist. He is an English major probably, but he heard a lot of hearsay back in the day when he was doing filed work instead of just reading the blogs as today.So watch it, if you need to fuel your confirmation bias.Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch

I wanted to see this documentary because I consider electric engines to be the future of the automotive industry, judging by the data that we now have. I have not seen the apparent prequel to this documentary, "Who killed the electric car?".I regularly refer to IMDb as an indication of whether I may like a movie or not, and was not expecting much from a movie with a 5.8 score. As soon as the movie started, I was surprised that it looked like a well-made, high production value documentary with substance and actual behind-the-scenes footage of the industry. It has many interviews with Elon Musk and Bob Lutz from GM made for the film and covers the subject matter from multiple approaches.It is a very enjoyable and informative documentary that actually made me feel good about the future.4/5

I've only managed to watch Who Killed The Electric Car? on DVD since it didn't manage to get a theatrical release here, and I was intrigued at how director Chris Paine managed to weave his documentary into a sort of murder-mystery that exposes how the environmentally friendly car EV1 got systematically canned despite it being a relatively superior product with advantageous to be reaped against the more conventional motor vehicle, even though it showed so much potential in being environmentally friendly. But profits and strange bedfellows meant an early death for the electric car, until now.It's a known fact that fossil fuels are finite, and the day will come when we no longer have them in abundance to supply our energy needs. Alternative fuels are slowly becoming a necessity, and with the shifts in mindsets come the shift in business propositions, forcing a relook into the viability of the electric vehicle, which Paine now revisits through a number of years spanning 2007 until today, where once opponents to the electric car such as GM's Bob Lutz have now become proponents as they realize the competitiveness, or the lack thereof, of the automobile industry in the USA will severely lack behind rivals from overseas as they look to the creation of electric vehicles.Paine's documentary narrated by Tim Robbins takes on a distinct and different look and feel from its predecessor, opting to go with personalities to fuel the film forward, and to be honest it's a real treat to be going behind the scenes to the boardrooms where decisions get made and the factory design and assembly areas to see first hand how prototypes get made, tested, approved or rejected. From big players like General Motors to Nissan in Japan, to smaller upstarts such as Tesla Motors in Palo Alto, we get to listen in to the various woes faced by players in the industry as they struggle through diminishing cash flows no thanks to the financial institutions meltdown in recent years, and how that impacted their staying afloat, what more trying to come out with a vehicle that has to boast respectable outputs compared to conventional vehicles, and the challenges faced with battery life.It also had star power, albeit used ever so briefly from Danny DeVito to Jon Favreau as talking heads, although Bob Lutz and even Carlos Ghosn of Nissan became unlikely engrossing personalities where we get a peek into their work ethics. Elon Musk of Tesla was particularly engaging, of someone who had earned his fortune being the founder of Paypal, entering cutting edge companies such as SpaceX and Tesla to try and make the world a better and more interesting place, but being cut down to size for what would be entrepreneurs not being second time lucky with their ventures. In fact, Musk got made to look somewhat vulnerable for a CEO, as well as dodgy at times due to failure to deliver as promised, and shockingly admitting to baiting and switching. Captured on video.Making its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival earlier this year on April 22 to coincide with Earth Day to lend it some street cred gravitas, Revenge of the Electric Car doesn't really explore the comeback of the vehicle much less than it being a film about the possible powerhouses and decision makers in a position to bring about major changes to the industry. It isn't easy, and if I take a look at our own backyard the infrastructure isn't there yet to make it easy nor mass market, but I suppose that day will come one day, and hopefully within my lifetime where I can get to own something affordable that takes me from Point A to B with zero pollution.

Contains spoilerRotEC is a movie not so much about the cars as about the people behind them. It covers the struggles, wins and losses of Bob Lutz of GM (Chevy Volt), Elon Musk (Tesla), Carlos Ghosn (Nissan Leaf) and Greg "Gadget" Abbott (Left Coast Electric). I was struck by several things. First, Bob Lutz and Elon Musk have a huge amount of swagger, personality and self-confidence, which may also be described as being "full of yourself". On the other hand, you probably need a lot of that to make it in the business. Lutz has been around for years in the industry, probably knows everybody, could walk away at any time and retire, but sticks with the job to preserve his "legacy". By the end of the movie, when he does retire, he reminded me of a former President or General, knowing that the world has moved on, and he's no longer critical to its functioning. It's bittersweet, but he might be called out of retirement at any time....As for Elon Musk, watching him was like watching a stunt flier at an air show who gets really, really close to the ground one too many times. As an aside, his entire family is pretty dynamic. His sister is a movie producer and his brother runs a social media business. Anyway, it seemed like most of the movie was just him telling Tesla employees, "C'mon guys, we have to get this done". I got the impression the movie didn't show the back room stuff where the hardball decisions were made. The movie was pretty good at showing you just how close to the edge of failure he seemed to live, when he had a warehouse full of cars needing rework, and creditors breathing down his neck. In spite of everything, all the people saying this is the end, get ready for bankruptcy, etc., Tesla survives, cars are delivered and now he's bringing up the Model S factory in Fremont CA. The best line in the movie about him was something to the effect of "I have to admire the guy, he's really doing something, as opposed to people who sit around and criticize and tell you how you will fail."As for Nissan, I've heard Ghosn speak before about the LEAF, but RotEC shows him as slightly cut-throat, which was new for me. He's pretty swaggering as well, but in an outwardly friendly way. I really enjoyed him telling a Nissan Exec, "Every day they aren't building a car is a good day for us." He got Nissan in a crouch, and I think he pounced when Nissan announced the price of the Leaf. Is Th!nk the first casualty? He probably has more up his sleeve...The guy I like best, and can relate to the best was Greg Abbott, referred to simply as Gadget. Man, if I knew half what that guy knows about building stuff, that would be pretty cool. He had this really great garage that did ev conversions, but it was burned to the ground by what the movie said was random arson. No cars, no tools, no shop, nothing. As he's digging around through the rubble, he finds an undamaged charge controller with its LED light still on. It brought a tear to my eye when he says "With this, I can build a car!" Go man, go. Eventually, he brings up Left Coast Electric again, and the movie closes with him and his wife driving from LA to Palm Springs in his awesomely cool ev conversion. It was a very upbeat and inspiring ending.