“Hands of Stone” doesn’t break any new ground, but it operates with low mistakes to be a step above competent and solid within the sports film genre.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 16, 2024

It just lays there on the mat.

| Original Score: C | Aug 28, 2021

As kinetic as its hero but as conservative as his story.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jun 29, 2021

In its hastiness to chronicle the singular Panamanian star, the film can't be bothered with acceptable editing and structuring techniques.

| Original Score: 1/10 | Dec 5, 2020

A wannabe great film in search of a great script to seal the victory.

| Original Score: 2.5/4.0 | Sep 10, 2020

Both fits and breaks the mold for filmmakers trying to reinvent the wheel.

| Jun 9, 2020

Although it's a split decision with a few rounds of the storytelling, Hands of Stone goes the distance for the win.

| Oct 31, 2019

Only comes out as incompetent at best.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 30, 2018

Walking out of the movie I was mostly disappointed, since I felt that there was something there that could've been great, but instead was ho-hum.

| May 9, 2018

Hands of Stone isn't the black eye on the boxing genre, but it presents the genre at its most mediocre and formulaic.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 20, 2017

This is certainly no Raging Bull. However, if you can invest in a boxer who is boisterous and bratty, Duran may hold your interest.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Nov 6, 2017

... Too many characters, too great a time span, and lack of focus on the main event.

| Oct 16, 2017

Filming largely in Panama with substantial support from the government, writer-director Jonathan Jakubowicz works to tie Duran's popularity with that country's struggle for respect and self-determination in the last half-century.

| Sep 22, 2017

. . .Hands of Stone Venezuelan writer/director Jonathan Jakubowicz muddies their story, hurrying from one unnecessary, underdeveloped scene to another.

| Aug 29, 2017

With a more creative hand at the helm, this all might be exciting, except Venezuelan director Jonathan Jakubowicz keeps things moving along at a middling clip.

| Aug 18, 2017

A hard-nosed biopic of the Panamanian prizefighter Roberto Duran, Hands of Stone is primarily a showcase for Edgar Ramirez.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 1, 2017

All this cacophony of backstory ends up being counterproductive, especially when the film tries to convey what makes this fighter worthy of tribute (or forgiveness or reconsideration, depending on your perspective).

| Original Score: C | Dec 31, 2016

Although the film has all the ingredients of a boxing drama, the editing isn't interesting and only offers a set of irregular images. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 20, 2016

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a sports movie in possession of a good story, must be a boxing movie.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Dec 8, 2016

Hands of Stone is a serviceable, reasonably entertaining biopic of Roberto Durn, with first rate performances that elevate it above its pedestrian execution.

| Dec 6, 2016