Ambitious to a Fault, Cramming a Number of Subjects into an Overcrowded Ring filled with Politics, Humanity, Rags to Riches, Boxing History, Boxing Strategy, World Stage Rivalry, Hero Worship, Family Bonding, all in a Clench with Roberto Duran.Robert De Niro plays Ray Arcel, a Legendary Boxing Manager forced out of the Ring by the Mob, but Returns when He Witnesses 66 Seconds of Roberto Duran Fighting.Edgar Ramirez is a Brooding and Dynamic "Duran" and really Comes to Life with His Fights against Sugar Ray Leonard (Usher Raymond). The Clashes with Leonard also come up a bit Lacking with Screen Time being Shared, unadvisedly, with so many Other Things.The Film, in an attempt to leave No "Stone" Unturned spans Duran's Life from Dirt Poor Street Urchin to "Champion of the World". Along the Way the United States Military and Political Leaders are Shown using the Panama Canal as a "Chess Piece" and Hints at Imperialistic Thuggery with a Very Young Duran being Bullied and Forever Angry Towards America.Ana De Armas is Striking as Duran's Loving Wife and Mother of His many Children and Ruben Blades Slides in and out of the Movie Awkwardly as Duran's Manager.Overall, the Film Feels Rushed and Diluted as the Enormous Amount of Story-Arcs seem Blended Together with Attention to All becoming the Detriment and Short Rift to All.Above Average but the Movie is Overweight. Entertaining but Bulging at the Seams with the many Story lines Fighting Against Each Other.

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...

Durans biography is a great story and for the most part is a good movie, but it could of been so much better, one of the greats even...And it all comes down to the directing... The movie is hard to connect with in the first 20 minutes and the voice audio is somewhat drowned out by the background audio, which obviously doesn't help in that regard either... It does slowly start getting better and a lot more engaging... The biggest downfall is the fights unfortunately, which is meant to be the best part of a fight movie, the camera is zoomed in that close you can't really tell whats going on half the time...? Honestly how can anyone think its good to film fight scenes like that is beyond me...