Spare Parts (2015)

Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Many of the kids attending Carl Hayden High School in Phoenix are undocumented immigrants. One of them is Oscar Vazquez (Carlos PenaVega) who is stopped from applying for the Army. Next, he tries to participate in an underwater robotics competition against some of the best schools in the country. Fredi Cameron (George Lopez) reluctantly accepts being the adviser. He's an out-of-work engineer and the new science substitute teacher. Gwen Kolinsky (Marisa Tomei) is the math teacher and Karen Lowry (Jamie Lee Curtis) is the principal. Oscar recruits computer geek Cristian Arcega and Fredi presses mechanic/thief Lorenzo Santillan to join. The four kids in the group are all illegals.This story is compelling. There may be a little too much melodrama. The family drama and ICE problems are expected. Teacher Cameron's own problems and romantic issues are probably excessive taking away attention from the kids. There is a bit of humor although Lopez is not playing a comedic character. It's a sincere telling of a true story. The competition has some tension although it could be structured better. It's a nice family-friendly story with a timely important issue.

Watched this on DVD from my public library. This is about a few kids and a teacher in an Albuquerque high school deciding they would build an underwater robot to compete in a national contest. The central character and catalyst is Carlos PenaVega as Oscar Vazquez, a dedicated and polite young man who plans to join the Army and based on his prior ROTC experience hopes to start as an E3. But Carlos has an issue, he needs a birth certificate. He came to the US as an illegal when he was a very small boy and was undocumented. But Carlos learns about the robotic competition and makes the request to new substitute math teacher, George Lopez as out-of-work engineer Dr. Fredi Cameron. (This character is a composite of two teachers that actually guided the kids.) Reluctant, because he didn't envision that it could lead anywhere, he gave in when Carlos found three other students for the team.The community is not a wealthy one and part of the challenge was to raise money for building the remotely controlled robotic sub. They ultimately built it for just under $800 of parts, while many of the teams they would be competing against spent thousands.This is a very nice movie, it has the inevitable feel-good ending, but is gratifying since it is a true story. Of note after all this Carlos voluntarily gave himself up, was deported, but returned legally, served in the military, and was brought to the White House for special recognition.SPOILERS: When the team traveled to California for the competition and saw the line for the college competition was shorter they actually entered that competition because they didn't think it mattered. If they were to lose badly wouldn't it be better to lose to college teams? But their little PVC pipe and spare parts sub worked, and each team member explained it so well in the after competition interviews that counted for 30% of the overall score, they finished 1st, the beat the old champions MIT and other colleges. True story!!

After watching McFarland USA which features Mexican immigrants who excelled in cross country racing,Spare Parts is another film that features them.This time,we get to see them excel in the robotics competition.This film based on "La Vida Robot" stars George Lopez,Jamie Lee Curtis,Carlos PenaVega and Marisa Tomei.The story focuses on the journey of a group that consist of four Mexican high school students from Carl Hayden High School as they prepare and compete in the 2004 national robotics competition going up against college students from excellent schools like M.I.T and Stanford University. The students have only used $800 compared to their opponents which have used thousands for the competition.While this maybe another typical inspirational film that could also be classified as an underdog story,it managed to provide joy and entertainment as we get to see a group of self-determined and intelligent students who managed to excel despite the challenges and obstacles that are against them.It also provided a great lesson that anyone can achieve anything in life as long as one is willing to his best and everything that he's got.Also,we also get to the contribution that Mexican immigrants have brought into this country regardless of one's opinion of them.

A sort of "Stand and Deliver" for the Dreamer generation, "Spare Parts" is loosely based on the true story of an unemployed-engineer- turned-substitute-teacher (George Lopez) who leads a quartet of undocumented Phoenix, Arizona high school students to victory in a national competition to see who can design and build the most efficient underwater robot (Fredi Cameron, we discover at the end, is actually an amalgam of two real-life teachers).As written by Elissa Matsueda and directed by Sean McNamara, "Spare Parts" feels awfully hackneyed and familiar at times, but what it lacks in originality and sophistication, it more than makes up for in sincerity and heart. In fact, it could easily have been just another story about a handful of Davids going up against a whole host of Goliaths, but it achieves an added sociological dimension by illustrating what life is like for kids and their families who live under constant threat of being deported due to their legal status. The movie features a cast of highly likable young actors: Carlos PenaVega is the super-driven whiz kid who turns to the project after he's denied entrance into the U.S. army due to his lack of papers; David Del Rio is the friendless, picked-upon nerd who finds acceptance in the group; Jose Julian is the petty thief from a troubled home who gets roped in as a sort of punishment for his crimes and stays for the glory, and Oscar Gutierrez is the thick- skulled, good-hearted lunk who provides much of the brawn needed to balance out the brains on the team. In addition to Lopez, the adult cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis and Marisa Tomei as a supportive principal and teacher, respectively, and Esai Morales as an anything-but-supportive parent."Spare Parts" pushes too hard at times for its emotional effects as it ticks off its requisite plot points. And it probably works better with a younger, less jaded audience who hasn't seen this type of Cinderella story a million times before. But you'd have to be a complete curmudgeon not to find yourself cheering these underdogs on to victory in the big contest.