Hands of Stone tells a great story but I have seen it before
Sports biopics are becoming a trend in Hollywood. If there is an amazing story to tell about an athlete or a sports team then this may become a movie soon. Sometimes they can be good like with Ali, 42 and Cool Runnings. Some of my favorite sports movies would have to be Kingpin and BaseKetball. A sport that has been shown many times is boxing. A new boxing movie is coming out this Friday called Hands of Stone. It tells of a Panamanian professional boxer named Roberto Duran. Before seeing this film I had never heard of him. I was able to see this new biographical sports film this week and here is what I thought of it.
Here is the plot for Hands of Stone:
At age 72, legendary trainer Ray Arcel (Robert De Niro) comes out of retirement to coach world-class Panamanian boxer Roberto Durán (Edgar Ramirez). Arcel becomes a mentor to the ferocious fighter, convincing him that winning ultimately comes down to strategy. After scoring knockout after knockout, Duran prepares for a bout against Sugar Ray Leonard, the undefeated lightweight champion. Five months later, on Nov. 25, 1980, the two titans meet for an infamous rematch that makes boxing history.
I didn’t hate Hands of Stone, but I didn’t love it either. It does have a great cast that do a wonderful job of bringing this story to life. Robert De Niro is the stand out star in my opinion. He plays a coach perfectly and gives a lot to make this role great, and I loved every minute he was on screen. This was an easy to follow story for me and I never got bored or confused watching it unfold. But I do have so issues with this movie.
Even though Hands of Stone tells a good educational story it came off as something I have seen many times before. Basically it follows the same formula so many of these films do. The main character rises from nothing and has a chance to become a world champion boxer. He does and enjoys the success for a while. Soon though he gets cocky and loses a rematch fight. When this happens he loses all of his fans, and falls into a downward spiral. Yet he has a chance to fight again, but this time things will be different. His old opponent is now a friend of his, and he wins a match everyone expected him to lose. He is a champion again and is again beloved by his old fans and plenty of new ones.
This formula has been used in all of the Rocky movies, multiple times. I also found the main character hard to root for sometimes even when I wanted to like him, this was not always easy. This is because of how ungrateful he acted sometimes, especially when he yelled at people who had a big part to play in where he got in his life. Overall it was not an awful film were I learned a lot about this interesting boxer, yet I wish it had been better.
Hands of Stone gets 5/10. I really did enjoy learning about this great athlete yet I left thinking it was only an okay movie. There are a few sex scenes that felt out of place in this film, especially the second one. If this film had tried harder to tell this story right I would be writing a much better review right now. It is sure to please some viewers but most won’t like it that much. It is also rated R so kids have no reason for watching this film this weekend.
Boxing fans may enjoy this interesting film. Those wanting to know more about this boxer will learn a ton watching this movie. Yet those wanting to see something original should miss this one, it will only disappoint them. Hands of Stone comes out this Friday. You can follow Hands of Stone on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Watch the Rise and Fall of a Champion below: