Spare Parts

Spare Parts tells the story of four Hispanic high school students in Arizona who, with encouragement from a new teacher, form a robotics club. Lacking experience and working with a budget of only 800 dollars, they salvage parts from used cars to build an underwater robot and enter a national competition, where they face the reigning champions from MIT. The students are unauthorized immigrants, and the film follows what they learn about teamwork and friendship along the way. It is based on a true story.

Sean McNamara directed the film, the twelfth of twenty-four features he has directed in chronological order, arriving between Just in Time for Christmas and Love in Paradise. Elissa Matsueda wrote the screenplay. The cast is led by George López as teacher Fredi Cameron, alongside Jamie Lee Curtis as the school principal and Marisa Tomei as Gwen Kolinsky, with Carlos PenaVega, Alexa PenaVega and Alessandra Rosaldo in supporting roles.

Released in January 2015, the film runs 115 minutes and is a drama from the United States, produced with involvement from Lionsgate, Brookwell-McNamara Entertainment, Circle of Confusion and Televisa. It earned about 4 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.2 from roughly 12,000 votes, and on TMDB it also rates 7.2, from 226 votes. The critics' rating stands at 5.6 from 31 reviews, noticeably below the audience scores.