Hands of Stone-- What is this movie about?

Cafe Society
1

I’ve seen the trailer 5 or 6 times. “Wow,” I thought to myself, “that guy who plays Sugar Ray does look a lot like him but I feel he’s familiar. . .” Duh, that’s Usher.

So the trailer is a lot of Sugar Ray Leonard, a lot of Robert Duval. There’s Robert Duval combing some guys hair. There’s Sugar Ray again dancing around. There’s Robert Duval talking out the side of his mouth. Hey, look at Usher being Sugar Ray again.

Then it hit me. Hands of Stone. Wasn’t that the boxer who quit in the middle of a fight with “No mas! No mas!”? Is this movie supposed to be about him? Why don’t they mention his name? I had to google to find what that boxer’s name was. Roberto Duran.

So-- is the name of the movie sideways? Is the trailer being deceptive and trying to sell the ‘stars’? Am I wrong about the trailer? What is this movie about?

2

Wanted to say-- it would be a cool movie if it is a reverse Rocky. How a talented and driven fighter came to the No Mas point.

But another trailer I just watched shows Usher having sex, so. . …

3

His nickname was “Manos de piedra Duran”, aka hands of stone.

4

Yes, that’s how I googled his name. I did mention this in the OP.

5

To be fair Duran is one of the greatest lightweights of all time and fought in 5 different decades. The no mas fight is just one small part of his career. There’s plenty of source material there. The average person doesn’t know a lot about him so they are probably relying on the other peoples star power to bring in a crowd.

6

The trailers I’ve seen have a lot of scenes of Robert DeNiro. Kind of cool twist on “Raging Bull”. Is Robert Duval also in the movie ?

7

No. He’s not. I’m just stupid, is all.

8

FWIW, the reviews have been…not spectacular. Currently pulling 43% on Rotten Tomatoes. The marketing seems to be focused on attracting crowds with star power rather than drumming up any particular interest in the story.

9

It figures that it wouldn’t be about Marv Throneberry, but I had hopes. I’d have gone to that one.

10

The trailer I saw for it was focused almost entirely on Duran and made it quite obvious it was his story. Usher was barely even shown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W1L0WnVnjY (I didn’t even realize that was Usher until they said his name)

11

Good! Maybe they got complaints. Haven’t seen this one yet, though.

12

That’s the one that I’ve seen in theaters. The ones that air on TV would be shorter and are likely cut to sell different aspects of the film.

13

Damn, and here I thought they finally made the definitive movie about Ben Grimm, The Thing.

14

Actually, that was Dick Stuart (a.k.a., “Stonefinger” and “Dr. Strangeglove”) but Throneberry wasn’t much better.