Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

The sad thing is, this is a movie that every American should see and understand, but that that is almost impossible, there's just too much disinformation standing between us and the truth.This is not a big film but that Robert De Niro was willing to lend his considerable talents to it speaks volumes about its worth. The story is a true one more than difficult to find in news reports at the time and so all the more jarring when told with the passionate clarity that it gets here. I admit I have a very personal point of view about this movie. I was stationed in Panama when Duran was fighting. I wish I could have seen him fight, but the closest I came was being outside a stadium and being stunned at the uproar coming from it. I asked someone what was going on and they said Roberto Duran was fighting. Roberto was more than just a fighter to Panamanians, he was their hero. The Chorrillo district he grew up in was mostly slum. To come up from such poverty seems more than heroic to anyone familiar with the area, it's downright miraculous.As Ray Arcel, his trainer, said, Roberto had some of the best instincts he'd ever seen. He was a natural fighter. His weakness was he was also a man prone to excess and excessive pride and the film does not shrink from those flaws. But to its credit it also doesn't shrink from putting the US in a less than admirable light.There's more that isn't mentioned in this film, such as the highly suspicious way General Torrijos, president of Panama, died, or the extensive prostitution our military base promotes which Roberto would have witnessed. Still this movie is a vast improvement over the usual way Hollywood portrays Central America.The acting is excellent throughout though I especially enjoyed Ana de Armas' portrayal of Roberto's wife, Felicidad, for the memories it gave me.

First of all, I am a big boxing fan so there was no chance I was going miss this one. Came out in the cinemas and got my tickets to go watch it. Roberto Duran was a member of what people called the "Fantastic four" (Duran, Hearns, Hagler, Leonard). A bunch of unique fighters who met in the late 70's and early 80's and had some of the most entertaining fights in boxing history. Roberto Duran was the smallest of them all and went from lightweight to middleweight to challenge them and gave a tremendous account of himself. The movie is fun to watch whether you like boxing of not. Its shows the tough upbringings of the life of this magnificent champion, how he never goes to school but ends marrying a well educated women, the needs to prove himself in every outing not only for him but also for his country which was undermined by the power of the US. Duran was a great fighter and somehow justice has been done by giving this man a movie that confirms him as one of the true greats in boxing history.

It's an excellent movie, The Drama, the life of Roberto, the problems between USA and Panama are very well explained in this movie, Robert De Niro plays Ray Arcel at the perfection, also did Edgar and Usher with Duran and Sugar Ray, they make a really nice copy between the best boxers of those years, for me the movie was great, note the budget that they use to do it...I came to the cinema to see a good movie and it leave me with a really nice impression!! If you want to see full actions in the fights this is not the right movie, but they change all the action for the camera movements and the focus on the reactions of the boxers, It's a nice way to make the movie closer to the emotions...

'HANDS OF STONE': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)A sports biopic, based on the life of professional boxing legend Roberto Duran. The film stars Edgar Ramirez, Robert De Niro, Ana de Armas, Usher Raymond IV, Ellen Barkin and Ruben Blades. It was written and directed by Venezuelan filmmaker Jonathan Jakubowicz (in his English-language film debut). The movie has received mixed reviews from critics, and it's been a bomb at the Box Office. I think it's a decent boxing film, and biopic, but nothing spectacular. The story focuses on the relationship between professional boxer Roberto Duran (Ramirez), and his trainer (who's equally legendary) Ray Parcel (De Niro). The two had a troubled relationship (at times), but one that equally involved a lot of respect; and both men learned a lot from each other. The movie begins with Parcel discovering Duran, in an early fight, it then goes to flashbacks of Duran growing up in Panama. The film also focuses on Duran's relationships with his estranged father (Eliud Kauffman), his wife Felicidad Iglesias (Armas), and legendary boxer Sugar Ray Leonard (Raymond IV). It also (very dramatically) depicts the two epic fights between Duran and Leonard.The movie is about as slow-paced, and aimless feeling, as most biopics; but it does have it's moments. The fight scenes, between Duran and Leonard, are pretty well done; they're both intense and involving. The performances are mostly decent (especially Ramirez and De Niro), but Duran was not a very likable guy (not according to this movie). It's hard to root for someone like that; but the film does do a pretty good job of showing all the hardships he had to go through (so some of his unpleasantness is understandable).Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIFMQ3xbt9g