Movie Review: Spare Parts: La Vida Robot (Five Stars!) - Mon., Jan. 26, 2015

Spare Parts is the 2004 true story about four Mexican-American, undocumented inner-city high school students in Phoenix, Arizona, the quest for excellence, and an underwater robotics competition at University of California, Santa Barbara. This intrepid team goes up against MIT, Virginia Tech, and other outstanding universities in their quest to win the ROV competition.

Just returned from seeing this movie. What a GREAT flick. Very highly recommended. I gave it 10 stars on IMDb and five stars on Fandango. I laughed, I cried, I laughed until I cried, I was deeply touched. If you want to go see it, I'll go with you. It's inspiring, heart-warming, touching, well acted, and superbly paced.

Yes, it's another underdog story, but what a story. And, yes, it has to do with science, but most of the concepts were explained in layman's terms. It appealed to the nerd in me.

George Lopez plays Fredi, a substitute science teacher at the high school. He's not perfect and has secrets, but then so do his students. Slowly, we learn each character's "story." Humor is interspersed with caring, teachable moments, encouragement, and teamwork.

Jamie Lee Curtis is the hardened school principal who teaches wayward students in her own inimitable manner. She uses humor and wisdom in keeping the kids in line.

Marisa Tomei works in the high school library. There's more to her than meets the eye.

The sum of the spare parts of this movie add up to a totally awesome movie-going experience. I've read the reviews where the tone of the movie is called "saccharine." I must admit I like sweets and this IS a sweet story. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion. Too much black humor and violence in many movies, although the last seven movies I've seen have been outstanding. Take a chance, see this underdog of a movie. Just go.