Who Killed the Electric Car?: Critic Reviews

Who Killed the Electric Car? makes you angry, and also sad, to live in a country where innovation could be contrived into an enemy.

Fast and furious, Who Killed the Electric Car? is the sad tale of yet one more attempt by a heroic group of civic-minded souls to save the browning, warming planet.

If Chris Paine's film were half as well designed as General Motors' super-sleek, super-quick EV1 (the electric car whose demise it laments), it would be a film to cherish.

A lot of the film is illuminating; a lot of it is pointless.

Fierce, deftly entertaining work of muckraking journalism.

Another few of these squandered opportunities for art-house muckraking and we'll need someone to ask who killed the left-wing documentary.

Certainly makes the case that if the electric cars were available today in mass quantities at competitive prices, they would sell like Girls Gone Wild videos.

Fascinating.

It posits a necessary question in these days of ever-burgeoning oil prices and ever-shrinking supply, and it offers distressing insights into the corporate American mindset.

A spirited celebration of the deceased can honor the lost opportunity even as it challenges the living, breathing, concerned survivors to demand more from corporations, government, ourselves.

Energetic documentary that efficiently ridicules GM for scrapping its electrical vehicle line.

A wondrous tale with an infuriating ending (at least so far).

Chris Paine's documentary about General Motors' development and withdrawal of the innovative, environment-friendly EV1 automobile is bound to reverberate with anyone who's fallen in love with a product only to see it irrevocably yanked from the market.

A documentary as efficient and zippy as its subject.

Filmmaker Chris Paine's postmortem on the EV1s doesn't answer all our questions, but it is reasonably evenhanded and quite entertaining.

Depressing and hugely important.

An entertaining if slightly skewed documentary about the short life and early death of General Motors' EV1.

No amount of last-reel optimism will cool the anger of progressive-minded auds.

If $3-a-gallon gasoline doesn't make you hate the big oil companies, the shocking revelations in Chris Paine's thought-provoking documentary Who Killed the Electric Car? will.

... an entertaining but sometimes disingenuous documentary ...

Paine's disarmingly impassioned movie sees nothing but short-term sinister interests behind the forced disappearance of a viably long-term solution.

Cynical bike riders may well snicker at scenes of car-lovers behaving like tree-huggers, but Paine effectively builds the viewer's affection for EV1, so the removal of the cars works as the film's climactic moment.

It's liable to get people hopping mad, whether or not they buy Paine's overarching conspiracy theory.

A potent hybrid of passion and politics fuel this energetic and highly compelling documentary.

It's a lively, informative whodunit about an energy-efficient vehicle that debuted with fanfare and died with a whimper.