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.
Cliff jumper, South Point, Na'alehu, Big Island - Monday, March 10, 2025
Cliff jumper, South Point, Na'alehu, Big Island - Monday, March 10, 2025
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
Monday, January 26, 2015
Movie Review: American Sniper - Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015
Feeling almost normal today after three days of feeling terrible. Happy to be out and about again. I had a hair appointment at 1pm for haircut and color.
Bob met me around 2:50pm to see "American Sniper." The first theater we went to was not showing "American Sniper" even though it was listed on Fandango. The ticket-seller said it's playing at another of their theaters ten minutes down the road. Apparently, Fandango routinely gets the movies at the wrong location for this chain of theaters. We decided to go to a different theater a few minutes in the other direction. It started later, but that gave us time to have lunch at Jim's Restaurant (very similar to Shari's or IHOP). We arrived at the theater just in time for the previews.
American Sniper is based on the true story of Navy SEAL operations in Iraq. Bradley Cooper plays a SEAL sniper, famous for his number of kills. Much of the movie is spent watching Cooper in action as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the decisions he must make while on duty, and the crazy war that is being waged.
In addition, the movie focuses on Chris meeting his soon-to-be wife, their wedding, their relationship and the toll taken on that relationship by his service to our country. Conveying the feelings of a military spouse is given a good amount of screen time, which helps break the war action a little. We learn the gender of his child, as he speaks to his wife, while he is on a tank mission that gets ambushed. You can really feel the anguish through Sienna Miller's performance.
The movie is intense, has the violence of war, and some harsh wartime judgments that must be made. Normally I do not like the violence in movies, but this movie satisfied my curiosity as to what being in a war must be like for the soldiers, what they must go through. From what I saw, it is not an easy task to the make the decisions and take the actions required of them in any given situation.
Hats off to our military, their wives and their families. Thank you for your service to our country.
I give "American Sniper" five stars.
After the movie, I had a Randolph Roadrunners Volksmarch Club meeting at 6:45pm. Bob and I had arrived at the movie separately in our own cars, so I went to the meeting and Bob headed home.
We had an excellent turn out at our meeting...about 30 people. The room we're meeting in is feeling too small!
That's it for Tuesday, Jan. 20.
Bob met me around 2:50pm to see "American Sniper." The first theater we went to was not showing "American Sniper" even though it was listed on Fandango. The ticket-seller said it's playing at another of their theaters ten minutes down the road. Apparently, Fandango routinely gets the movies at the wrong location for this chain of theaters. We decided to go to a different theater a few minutes in the other direction. It started later, but that gave us time to have lunch at Jim's Restaurant (very similar to Shari's or IHOP). We arrived at the theater just in time for the previews.
American Sniper is based on the true story of Navy SEAL operations in Iraq. Bradley Cooper plays a SEAL sniper, famous for his number of kills. Much of the movie is spent watching Cooper in action as Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, the decisions he must make while on duty, and the crazy war that is being waged.
In addition, the movie focuses on Chris meeting his soon-to-be wife, their wedding, their relationship and the toll taken on that relationship by his service to our country. Conveying the feelings of a military spouse is given a good amount of screen time, which helps break the war action a little. We learn the gender of his child, as he speaks to his wife, while he is on a tank mission that gets ambushed. You can really feel the anguish through Sienna Miller's performance.
The movie is intense, has the violence of war, and some harsh wartime judgments that must be made. Normally I do not like the violence in movies, but this movie satisfied my curiosity as to what being in a war must be like for the soldiers, what they must go through. From what I saw, it is not an easy task to the make the decisions and take the actions required of them in any given situation.
Hats off to our military, their wives and their families. Thank you for your service to our country.
I give "American Sniper" five stars.
After the movie, I had a Randolph Roadrunners Volksmarch Club meeting at 6:45pm. Bob and I had arrived at the movie separately in our own cars, so I went to the meeting and Bob headed home.
We had an excellent turn out at our meeting...about 30 people. The room we're meeting in is feeling too small!
That's it for Tuesday, Jan. 20.
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