Revenge of the Electric Car (2011)

73% of critics liked it
(30 reviews)
72% of users liked it
(947 ratings)

In 2006, thousands of new electric cars were purposely destroyed by the same car companies that built them. Today, less than 5 years later, the electric car is back... with a vengeance. In "Revenge of the Electric Car," director Chris Paine takes his film crew behind the closed doors of Nissan, GM,… More In 2006, thousands of new electric cars were purposely destroyed by the same car companies that built them. Today, less than 5 years later, the electric car is back... with a vengeance. In "Revenge of the Electric Car," director Chris Paine takes his film crew behind the closed doors of Nissan, GM, and the Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors to chronicle the story of the global resurgence of electric cars. Without using a single drop of foreign oil, this new generation of car is America's future: fast, furious, and cleaner than ever. -- (C) Official Site

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Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 30 min.
Directed By: Chris Paine
Written By: P.G. Morgan, Chris Paine
Genres: Documentary, Special Interest

In Theaters: Oct 21, 2011 Limited
On DVD: Jan 24, 2012
Studio: Midwest Films

Critic Reviews

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer
As filmmaking goes, Paine's follow-up is a dud.
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune
If you thought you'd never mist up at a nonfiction movie about plug-in autos, you're in for a surprise. This is a surprisingly emotional trip, and a very enjoyable one.
J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader
Once a muckraker, Paine now acts mostly as a cheerleader, and his slick new movie trades heavily in the sort of flattering CEO profiles that grace the covers of business magazines.
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
The first film was charged with drama. "Revenge" is somewhat anticlimactically charged with a wall plug.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
The movie is interesting now and, given its subject, should even be more interesting in about a hundred years. Stick around.
Ty Burr, Boston Globe
More hopeful but also more complex and lacking the focused urgency of the original.
Christopher Long, Movie Metropolis
This is more superficial rah-rah than investigation. I'm sure it serves its ideological purpose, but as a documentary, it's uninspired.
Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Revenge of the Electric Car" lacks the urgency of "Who Killed the Electric Car?" But Paine's thorough knowledge of his subject, and engaging way with an interview, make the follow-up film a fun ride.
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul), St. Paul Pioneer Press
I doubt "Revenge of the Electric Car" will change any minds, but I could see it shifting them slightly, and that's not nothing.
Kelly Vance, East Bay Express
Endlessly fascinating for car nuts.
Brent Simon, Shared Darkness
An entertaining look at the auto industry's about-face on electric cars, but a movie that could have dug deeper, especially in a political climate where one of two parties wears as a badge of honor their continued rejection of climate science.
, Boston Phoenix
In the end, Revenge is sweet, and Paine's outlook is positive, with a prospect of clean air and even an end of oil dependency.
Christopher Campbell, Movies.com
Chalk this up with The Godfather Part II and The Empire Strikes Back as one of the few sequels that's better than the original.
Fr. Chris Carpenter, Movie Dearest
Though not as engrossing as the first film (2006's "Who Killed the Electric Car?"), "Revenge" pulls back the cover on the major car manufacturers' more recent efforts.
Chuck Bowen, Slant Magazine
This is still the kind of film that's probably most necessary if movies hope to play any kind of part in our cultural rehab.

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Dann M

Revenge of the Electric Car is a rather pedantic documentary that stretches for material. The film follows the re-emergence of electric car technology in the wake of the 2006 abandonment of the GM EV1. When the electric car appeared to have lost the fight to be the alternative… More
Revenge of the Electric Car is a rather pedantic documentary that stretches for material. The film follows the re-emergence of electric car technology in the wake of the 2006 abandonment of the GM EV1. When the electric car appeared to have lost the fight to be the alternative energy vehicle of the future, Tesla Motors rises to prominence along with the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf. Though this film documents an interesting chapter in the quest for alternative energy vehicles, there's not enough material or distance to objectively analyze the situation. A lot of it is just PR for the car companies, which hurts the "documentary" aspect of the film. Though Revenge of the Electric Car is vastly inferior to the much more compelling original (Who Killed the Electric Car?), this follow-up film explores some interesting topics.