Switch

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23%

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User Ratings: 55

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Movie Info

Energy is the foundation of modern life. Our transportation, global commerce, food and water, housing, medicine, communications and computing all depend on it. Yet energy is in a sweeping period of transition. Renewables are entering the landscape. Unconventional gas and oil are changing our ideas of supply. Opinions on nuclear are shifting. Carbon concerns may, or may not, affect global production and consumption. What does the future of energy really hold? Join energy visionary Dr. Scott Tinker on a spectacular global adventure to find out. Dr. Tinker explores the world's leading energy sites, from coal to solar, oil to biofuels, many highly restricted and never before seen on film. He gets straight answers from the people driving energy today, international leaders of government, industry and academia. In the end, he cuts through the confusion to discover a path to our future that is surprising and remarkably pragmatic. -- (C) Official Site

Rating:

NR
Genre:

Action & Adventure, Documentary, Drama
Directed By:

Jay Sun
In Theaters:

Sep 20, 2012 limited
On Disc/Streaming:

Apr 15, 2014
Runtime:

120 minutes
Studio:

Arcos Pictures

Cast

Andy Lau
as Special Agent Xiao

Lin Chi-Ling
as Lisa

Jingchu Zhang
as Lin Yuyan

Critic Reviews for Switch

All Critics (6) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (3) | Rotten (3)

Perhaps "Switch's" greatest strength is in giving us enough information to try to come up with better questions of our own.

November 8, 2012 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Betsy Sharkey
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic
Exhaustive and exhausting, the new energy documentary "Switch" is so monotonous it makes "An Inconvenient Truth" look like "Armageddon."

September 20, 2012 | Rating: 2/5

Jeannette Catsoulis
New York Times
Top Critic
A methodical, occasionally remedial survey of the energy crisis and its possible solutions, Switch fits a subject often treated polemically into a more benign, continuing education mold.

September 18, 2012 | Full Review…

Michelle Orange
Village Voice
Top Critic
"Switch," a thorough and sober-minded documentary about the past, present and future of energy, is refreshingly free of hot air.

September 14, 2012 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

Michael O'Sullivan
Washington Post
Top Critic
Switch educates in the manner of a made-for-classroom film... the approach is a little too "balanced" to please anyone on any side of the issue.

September 24, 2012 | Full Review…

Eric Monder
Film Journal International
Possibly the driest and most balanced documentary on the current energy crisis.

September 18, 2012 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…

Kalvin Henely
Slant Magazine