Hands of Stone (2016)

“Hands of Stone” stars Edgar Ramirez, Robert De Niro, Usher Raymond IV, and Oscar Jaenada.  Released on August 26, 2016, the film follows the life of Roberto Duran and his boxing career.

The film is directed by Jonathan Jakubowicz, who also directed Secuestro Express in 2005.  So far in my film reviewing career, I saw two boxing films that left a big impression on my face: Creed and Southpaw.  There was also another boxing film that I liked called Real Steel, but I’ll get to that one someday.  This is the latest movie in that category that strives to be as great as the ones listed above.  I mean, come on, it’s got Robert De Niro and Usher Raymond as a boxer.  Two famous celebrities in a boxing drama.  That should be enough to make me happy, right?

Pros:
Good performances.

The boxing scenes were passable.

Cons:
The execution of the concept was poor.

The characters didn’t really click for me.  I didn’t actually care that much for Duran.

Generic sports narrative.

The emotional depth wasn’t deep enough.

Final thoughts: “Hands of Stone” has a chance to reach for the gold, but gets knocked out quickly in the first round, resulting in one of my biggest disappointments of 2016.  The cast did a nice job portraying their characters, but everything else, in my opinion, just didn’t do that much for me.  I guess I was expecting it to be like Rocky Balboa, Creed, or Southpaw, but you know what they say, you win some, you lose some.  People who enjoyed boxing films may or may not like this film more than I did.

D+