El Submarino - Scuba Gears

Unemployed and recently divorced, his mortgage underwater, Larry goes into free-fall—but this being a relentlessly upbeat movie, it's a short fall onto a feather mattress. After a failed shot at applying for retail work, he enrolls at a local community college to get his degree. His professors include Ed Matsutani, Ph.D. (George Takei), a strict economics prof with a disturbingly sinister laugh, and Mercedes Tainot (Roberts), a teacher of speech and English who's burned out on both her job and her marriage. (I'll give the script this: Mercedes Tainot is a cool character name.) A young hippie-chick classmate, Talia (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), takes Larry under her wing the first day of school. She offers some fashion advice ("A tucked-in polo shirt makes you look like a cop,") then invites him along on a scooter excursion with her friends. (The near-broke Larry has recently downsized from a gas-guzzling van to a scooter.

Last month, the Tigers were wiped out by the Sri Lankan military. But the technology they were developing, submersibles, has caught on. "U.S. law enforcement officials say that more than a third of the cocaine smuggled into the United States from Colombia travels in submersibles," the Washington Post reports . "U.S. officials and their Colombian counterparts have detected evidence of more than 115 submersible voyages since 2006," and "U.S. officials expect 70 or more to be launched this year."

Until recently, submariners caught by authorities could not be charged in the United States or Colombia if the cocaine was scuttled. "The vessels are built to sink. When they open the valves, tons of water come in, and in a minute, or a minute and a half, they sink," [a Colombian admiral] said. "There is no evidence, and what starts as a counterdrug operation becomes a rescue operation." ... "With no drugs found, we couldn't prosecute," said [an] assistant U.S. attorney. At least eight crews have been returned to Colombia after rescue, without being charged.

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