Spare Parts
Lionsgate | Release Date: January 16, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
4
Mixed:
9
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
Philadelphia InquirerTirdad DerakhshaniJan 16, 2015
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. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanJan 15, 2015
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. Read full review
70
VarietyJoe LeydonJan 17, 2015
Even though it’s easy to identify all the recycled elements — bits and pieces of several inspirational-teacher scenarios, ranging from “To Sir, With Love” to “Stand and Deliver” — in this “based on a true story” concoction, there can be no denying the feel-good effect of the finished product. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesMichael RechtshaffenJan 17, 2015
Director Sean McNamara's film is impressively buoyed by a cast of young newcomers and seasoned pros. Read full review
60
The DissolveKeith PhippsJan 20, 2015
The film refreshingly portrays its kids as part of a diverse group trying to succeed in a country in which they can never find secure footing. That’s the big-picture story here, and one even the occasional underdog cliché can’t obscure. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterSheri LindenJan 15, 2015
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. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJan 15, 2015
Spare Parts is the kind of feel-good underdog movie that almost can't help getting waylaid by cliches. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJan 20, 2015
In its mad hurry, the movie denies itself its own genre pleasures—chiefly, the ways assembling a ragtag robotics team and an equally ragtag robot might add a little bit of Mission: Impossible or MacGyver dynamics into a sports-style narrative. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJan 19, 2015
It's easy to be cynical about a movie like this which, despite its factual basis, is more product than story. The pandering is obvious. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSusan WloszczynaJan 16, 2015
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. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleThomas LeeJan 15, 2015
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. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisJan 15, 2015
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. Read full review
40
Village VoiceAaron HillisJan 17, 2015
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. Read full review
38
Boston GlobePeter KeoughJan 15, 2015
Aside from the clever punning of the title, Spare Parts ends up as jury-rigged and programmatic as Stinky, the robot in the movie. And, unlike Stinky, it is dead in the water. Read full review
30
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJan 15, 2015
The movie’s setup has underdog appeal in spades. But it’s all for naught in a screenplay, by Elissa Matsueda (working from Joshua Davis’s 2005 article in Wired magazine), that plays down intellect in favor of corn and cliché. Read full review
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