Synopsis
With the help of their high school's newest teacher, four Hispanic students form a robotics club. Although they have no experience, the youths set their sights on a national robotics contest. With $800 and parts scavenged from old cars, they build a robot and compete against reigning champion MIT. Along the way, the students learn not only how to build a robot but something far more important: how to forge bonds that will last a lifetime.
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Cast
- George LopezFredi Cameron
- Jamie Lee CurtisPrincipal
- Carlos PenaVegaOscar Vazquez
- Marisa TomeiGwen Kolinsky
- Alessandra RosaldoMrs. Vazquez
- Alexa PenaVegaKarla
- David Del RioCristian Arcega
- Esai MoralesMr. Santillan
- Amber MidthunderNikki
- Aubrey K. Miller
Recommendations
- 75
Washington Post
It is the four young actors who play the students who truly shine, and who elevate the formulaic film above and beyond its familiar proceedings. - 75
Philadelphia Inquirer
At times, Spare Parts sails perilously close to the saccharine. But the film is a fine example of a message movie that does justice both to its important subject matter and to its characters' inner lives. - 70
Los Angeles Times
Director Sean McNamara's film is impressively buoyed by a cast of young newcomers and seasoned pros. - 60
Arizona Republic
Spare Parts is the kind of feel-good underdog movie that almost can't help getting waylaid by cliches. - 60
The Hollywood Reporter
The immigration-themed messages of acceptance and encouragement are clearly spelled out, often in heavy-handed fashion, and an overriding blandness mutes the drama. But there’s also something apt in the straightforward telling of the against-the-odds adventure. - 50
Austin Chronicle
Call it humanism, call it advocacy, call it old-fashioned entertainment – there’s little difference in the end. Whatever you call it, Spare Parts stands and delivers on its own intriguing merits. - 50
San Francisco Chronicle
If “Stand and Deliver” struck many as a hard-hitting look at life in the urban ghetto, Spare Parts seems like a Disney after-school special by comparison. - 50
RogerEbert.com
The issue of so-called “illegals” could not be more timely and, if Spare Parts does anything, it attempts to humanize the situation of those children who cope with this limbo-land existence without having had much choice in the matter.
