Simply A Masterpiece

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

This is a biopic of Roberto Durán (Edgar Ramírez). It shows Durán in Panama as a child and incorporates the background of US/Panama relations. As an adult the film concentrates on his relationship with Jewish trainer Ray Arcel (Robert De Niro) who acts more like a life coach, whispering the fight strategy into Durán's ear right before the bout. How about "The Boxer Whisperer" for a title? It is a bit like the "Rocky" series as we see Durán rise up hungry from the streets and winning in a close decision. He then goes on a winner's binge and parties too much, only to lose to Sugar Ray Leonard (Usher Raymond). Durán regains the "Eye of the Tiger" by fighting in a prison. I guess there are only so many variations a boxer's life we can actually have. At least they spared us the training music montage. The film implies Roberto Durán's trash talking was a strategy to get inside another fighter's head.In addition to representing the pride, joy and hope of Panama, Roberto Durán also represented its anger and embarrassment. It was an interesting film, and of course has a lot of ring fighting.Guide: F-word, sex, and nudity (Ana de Armas)

I saw this at home on DVD from my public library. This is not my wife's type of movie so she skipped. My dad was a big fan of 'boxing', when I was a kid he even listened to some fights on the radio at night. But the purists don't call it 'boxing', no it is 'fighting', as in "Prize Fighting." I've never been a fan, but I do enjoy seeing a good biography.Many consider Roberto Duran the greatest champion of all time, but that debate will never end. He had a 34-year career, starting as a professional at age 16. The story here starts where he grew up in Panama, when he was nearing 20. Panama itself was against the USA occupation but the Panama Canal was at stake. Duran grew up in poverty, and grew up fighting for what he needed. Basically a street brawler, which naturally took him into fighting in the ring as a way to make money.He wanted to be world champion so he went to New York to look up famed trainer Ray Arcel, who at first didn't want to have anything to do with him. However he recognized Duran's innate ability and knew, if he could get Duran to focus and develop a fight strategy, instead of just brawling, he could beat anyone. Much of the 'boxing' part of the movie focuses on his bouts with Sugar Ray Leonard, at first bitter adversaries but later in life friends. Edgar Ramírez is excellent as Roberto Durán, so is Robert De Niro as Ray Arcel, and the singer Usher Raymond as Sugar Ray Leonard. Excellent movie. As an aside De Niro's real life daughter has a role as Arcel's daughter.

This film tells the story of a young man in Panama, who grows up to be a successful boxing champion. This film chronicles his rise and fall in the boxing world, and the story of the people around him who makes everything possible.Boxing is a sport that I don't really understand, so perhaps that's the reason that I can't really get into the story. I can see how history and politics makes Duran angry, and he channels that into boxing. His rise to fame is a good story, and I like the parts where the coach said about strategies. However, the rest of the story is not so well told. I still can't understand why he did what he did at the $8 million dollar match. A reminder, make sure you watch it with subtitles on, unless you soak good Spanish, as a lot of the dialogue is in Spanish.

"In 66 seconds Roberto Durand changed my life." Ray Arcel (De Niro) was one of the best boxing managers in history until he crossed the mob. He promised to step away from the game, but then he met Roberto Durand (Edgar Ramírez). Both lives, and the sport of boxing is changed forever and the only person that can stop Durand's rise is himself. I was looking forward to watching this movie since I am a huge sports movie fan and it had De Niro in it. First of all this was a very very good movie that had great drama and great acting. The fact that this is a true story made this even better and I do recommend this movie. That being said, I watched the ESPN 30 for 30 documentary about this subject a few years ago, and to me that was better than this. That being said, the movie is still very good and if you haven't seen the documentary you will love this, as for me I really really liked it. I think my problem was that the movie stayed so true to the actual story, even the fights are shot for shot how they actually happened, that it didn't really add anything that I hadn't known already. Overall, a great movie that is worth seeing because the story is full of everything a movie should have. The documentary, however, was better and it hurt the movie for me a little bit. I give this a B.