It is set in Carl Hayden Community High School in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2004. The school is 90% Hispanic and includes many undocumented students. The film is "based on a true story" published in Wired magazine in 2005.
The core roles are Fredi Cameron (George Lopez), a Hispanic engineer with a Ph. D. who is at loose ends after the death of his three-year-old daughter in a traffic accident, and the subsequent collapse of his marriage. He takes a substitute teaching job at the school and becomes the Robotics Club advisor that wants to enter an underwater robotics competition in California. Gathered around him are four students, most of them undocumented.
Oscar (Carlos PenaVega) is a good-looking, straight-laced, and disciplined guy who has been in ROTC throughout high school and wants to join the military but cannot because he is undocumented. Lorenzo (José Julían) is a practical genius figuring out engines and electronics headed for a life of larceny until he joins the club. Cristian (David Del Rio) is a scrawny but brilliant academic who is often bullied and does the project's theoretical planning. Luis (Oscar Gutierrez) is a big football lineman type who sometimes defends Cristian, is no academic, but is brought on board to do the heavy lifting of the 100-pound robot. The school's principal (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a live-wire administrator ideally suited to a school such as this one.
The story follows the ups and downs in the lives of the various characters, works in a little romance, and follows the team to the competition in Santa Barbara, California that they win.
This is a feel-good movie that is fun to watch, with a lot of humor mixed into the story-line. It departs from reality at numerous points. But this is a fun evening's entertainment.
The core roles are Fredi Cameron (George Lopez), a Hispanic engineer with a Ph. D. who is at loose ends after the death of his three-year-old daughter in a traffic accident, and the subsequent collapse of his marriage. He takes a substitute teaching job at the school and becomes the Robotics Club advisor that wants to enter an underwater robotics competition in California. Gathered around him are four students, most of them undocumented.
Oscar (Carlos PenaVega) is a good-looking, straight-laced, and disciplined guy who has been in ROTC throughout high school and wants to join the military but cannot because he is undocumented. Lorenzo (José Julían) is a practical genius figuring out engines and electronics headed for a life of larceny until he joins the club. Cristian (David Del Rio) is a scrawny but brilliant academic who is often bullied and does the project's theoretical planning. Luis (Oscar Gutierrez) is a big football lineman type who sometimes defends Cristian, is no academic, but is brought on board to do the heavy lifting of the 100-pound robot. The school's principal (Jamie Lee Curtis) is a live-wire administrator ideally suited to a school such as this one.
The story follows the ups and downs in the lives of the various characters, works in a little romance, and follows the team to the competition in Santa Barbara, California that they win.
This is a feel-good movie that is fun to watch, with a lot of humor mixed into the story-line. It departs from reality at numerous points. But this is a fun evening's entertainment.