Hands of Stone

Parental Rating: R

Contains: Language    Nudity    Violence    Sex    Adult Content    

Jill's Review

Opens August 26, 2016

Runs 105 minutes

This is a bipoic about Roberto Duran (Edgar Ramirez), the famed boxer known for his "hands of stone". The film follows Roberto from his dirt poor childhood in Panama through his famed boxing matches against Sugar Ray Leonard (Raymond Usher IV). Roberto grew up with nothing. In fact, he often stole food to feed his family. He always had a chip on his shoulder against the United States because his father was American and left the family and returned to the States. Luckily, he was discovered by a boxing coach who gave him a chance to leave all of his resentent in the ring. As he worked his way through all of the Panamanian boxers, he also wooed his eventual wife Felicidad Iglesias (Ana de Armas) who he married when he was 17 and she was 14. They eventually had eight children. When there was no one left to fight in Panama, legendary coach Ray Arcel (Robert DeNiro) was brougt in to prepare Roberto to fight Sugar Ray. He went on to shock the boxing world by defeating Sugar Ray to win the WBC Welterweight title.  He sent shockwaves through the boxing community again when he quit his rematch with Sugar Ray, declaring "no mas" as he exited the ring. He eventually reurned to boxing and retired in 2002 at age 50. He and Sugar Ray have remained friends to this day.

I liked this movie. I didn't know anything about Roberto Duran so I enjoyed learning about his history and family. I thought Edgar Ramirez did a fantastic job as Duran. He looked great in the boxing ring. And, Usher did a great job as Sugar Ray. Supposedly, they each trained with the actual boxers. It looked like it. Robert DeNiro did a nice job. I thought they could have excluded the scenes with his wife and long-lost daughter. They didn't add anything to the story about Duran and his coach. But, overall, I thought it was a good movie and I enjoyed it. If you like biopics with great actors, then this might be for you. Go see it.

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