HANDS OF STONE, the movie about the life of Panama boxing celebrity Robert Duran seems unlikely to achieve the Oscar nomination dream of its promoters.

It has been widely panned by critics in the US, UK and Canada, and a lukewarm review by a local film writer.

The $20 million production received $2.8 million from the Panama Government,.Attendance hopes in Panama are now based on the emotional response of  citizens, dedicated to their local hero

Most commentators  branded  the movie with a  with a D or an F as  did The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, New York Post, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, USA Today, and The Washington Post says La Prensa.

The verdict

Two websites specializing in film and television, grouping comments from critics i n North America and the UK, gave a withering verdict: rottentomatoes.com gave Hands of Stone 46% of a total of 100 (an F) and metacritic.com awarded 55% of 100 (another F).

Hands of Stone on premiered in North America, Panama, Israel and Singapore August 26 .

The film will  debut in September in Greece, Poland, Croatia, Norway and Bulgaria but there is no date  for  the rest of Latin America, where Duran is an  idol.

Hands of Stone had a budget of $ 20 million, not including several million invested to promote it in the United States.

The La Prensa critic  calls it is a regular and routine film with “too many subplots that rival the one and main story : the rise, fall and return of Roberto Duran.”

The laudable effort to leave nothing out of the life  of Duran, director Jonathan Jakubowicz strives in the impossible mission of presenting too many aspects of his  childhood and adolescence while supporting characters rival the star. .

Hands of Stone does not reach classics like The Fighter (2010), by David O. Russell; Million Dollar Baby (2004), Clint Eastwood, and The Boxer (1997), Jim Sheridan, or Raging Bull (1980), Martin Scorsese, or Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), Robert Wise or Gentleman Jim ( 1942), Raoul Walsh.

Sex  angle

“What justification is there to have bed scenes in Hands of Stone?  Sys LaPrensa.. Sure it's great to see the beautiful naked body of Ana de Armas  those moments of intimacy contribute nothing to the plot. It's just another element that diverts the flow of history.

There was praise for Robert De Niro “He is at ease, an. interpreter with spurs. Whenever he faces  the camera he shines."

Edgar Ramirez m who plays ”the complicated  Duran   is unstable. Sometimes he has it under full control and at others it  escapes  through his fingers.”

 The La Prensa critic ends:“Does the tone and scope of the film fully honor our sporting glory?  I'm sorry no”