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.
This blatantly big-hearted product isn't half as vibrant as the original 2005 Wired article on which it's based, and myopically neglects to address Arizona's troubling anti-immigration legislation through even a splash of hindsight.
– Aaron Hillis,
Village Voice,
17 Jan 2015
fresh:
While the appropriately titled "Spare Parts" might feel like it has been assembled from bits and pieces of other inspirational movies, that doesn't mean the fact-based drama is any less effective ...
– Michael Rechtshaffen,
Los Angeles Times,
17 Jan 2015
rotten:
Spare Parts tries too hard to be a based-on-a-true-story, feel-good, crowd-pleasing, triumph-of-the-underdogs movie.
– James Berardinelli,
ReelViews,
17 Jan 2015
rotten:
Sequences and scenes end unceremoniously, everyone in the movie seems to know each other's backstory before they're properly introduced, and mild jokes land with uncertainty.
– Jesse Hassenger,
AV Club,
20 Jan 2015
fresh:
Though based on a Wired magazine story, this sticks closely to the formulas of inspirational-teacher and sports-team dramas; distinguishing it from the pack is the fact that all four students who formed the club were undocumented.