Review of Hands of Stone (2016) by Kristofer H — 26 Aug 2016

Proper Perspective: This is not the next great boxing movie, just being honest and upfront, but there are a lot of really good things to take from this movie. By all accounts it is not a bad movie, just not much to remember once you get in your car and drive home...

Let's talk about the dramatic depiction of the story of Roberto Duran.

Plot in a Paragraph: Raised on the street and taking his natural anger and skill as a fighter to the ring, Roberto Duran (Edgar Ramirez) then goes under the guidance of legendary trainer Ray Arcel (Robert de Niro) to get to the top of the food chain in boxing after defeating the once unbeaten Sugar Ray Leonard (Usher Raymond). Once he gets to the top, Duran wants to enjoy his life with his family, his country, and his wife Felicidad Iglasias (Ana de Armas) before he is blind sided with a rematch with Leonard where he is not ready.

If you know boxing you know the basics of this story. Duran rises up, defeats Sugar Ray Leonard, then loses the rematch before making his comeback to the sport raising up in weight classes.

This movie suffered from having two absolutely fascinating stories of Ray Arcel and his journey to Duran and his relationship with him over the years. Arcel's backstory was a great movie on its own, but then they laced in a full Duran biographical story. The Duran story of a street fighter who grew up in a proud country during a tough, tough time in history was then interlaced with Arcel's biographical backstory. Two movies were mushed together.

A focus on Ray Arcel over the years or maybe in the same way "Steve Jobs" was made last year could have been its own movie. Same for a full feature focused on the story of Panama and Roberto Duran's career. It is a shame that the performance Edgar Ramirez gave in this movie is going to be overlooked or not seen altogether because Hands of Stone is unfortunately a forgettable boxing movie trying to be too many things.

Like I alluded to, great performance by Ramirez (Joy, The Bourne Ultimatum) who no matter the movie is always so captivating and is one of my favorite actors working today. He was great as Roberto Duran during the Roberto Duran portions of this Roberto Duran movie.

The boxing scenes were good, but the sound mixing and the sound of a neck breaking on a simple jab took me out of the scenes. Improved sound mixing would not make this a Mount Rushmore of boxing movies or anything, but it would have greatly improved those scenes. Ramirez, Usher (The Muppets Most Wanted, lots of music), and de Armas (Knock Knock, War Dogs) were captivating in this movie.

Skipping this in the theaters is not a bad idea, then catching it on Redbox or Netflix this fall would be fair. Not a great boxing movie, but two good stories and a few great performances.

The guy who gives Blake Lively a ride to the "mystery beach" in The Shallows is in this movie. He is amazing! More Oscar Jaenada!!!