The Alto Knights

Barry Levinson directed this mediocre gangster movie, with writer Nick Pileggi turning a potentially dramatic story into a generally dull exercise in nostalgia, genre cliches and a showpiece for Robert DeNiro to show off his considerable acting skills.

First hour is uninvolving and hard to sit through, thanks to an awkward flashback structure and rat-a-tat-tat editing. It opens with De Niro has mobster Frank Costello surviving an assassination attempt in 1957, and then fills in the his story and that of his childhood friend, mobster Vito Genovese (also played by DeNiro), leading up to the second half where their troubled relationship comes to an end -and the picture gets interesting. Too late for me, after suffering through that first half.

Levinson is bogged down in nostalgia, all the vintage cars, lots of old footage of familiar real-life celebs ranging from Louis Prima and Louie Bellson to James Cagney and Little Richard, and hectic montages of still photos. After a while, I was wishing that this was a Ken Burns documentary titled "The Crime Families" instead.

The entire movie is told from Costello's point-of-view, with sort of a third DeNiro playing old age Costello and looking more like Martin Scorsese (my peculiar reaction only). DeNiro's acting plus the script sugarcoat the Costello character to such an extent that he comes off as the "good guy" of the story.

But it is DeNiro as hothead/nutcase Genovese that is the flamboyant role here, especially compared to the overly bland Costello presentation. Levinson would have been better off casting Joe Pesci as Genovese. The gimmick of DeNiro times two, playing both leading roles in a movie, comes off in a technical sense, but is distracting from the story.

Supporting cast is extremely weak, mostly making no impression at all. An exception is Kathrine Narducci as Genovese's fiery wife Anna -she's the best thing in the picture. Debra Messing as Costello's wife is stuck in a nothing part. Of all the subsidiary gangsters in a large cast, only Michael Rispoli as Albert Anastasia stands out of the crowd.

I don't see why all the "hate" for this movie. It's a decent mafia movie. Not great, not terrible. I see people complaining that De Niro shouldn't been playing two characters, especially the main characters. I think he did a good job, which shows his incredible talent of getting into different characters. Yes, you could see it's the same person, the difference was not big, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese didn't look alike but you could see who was who in the movie.

It's not the typical, highly violent mafia movie we're used to and perhaps that's why it doesn't get up there in the top. It's hard to compare it to the classics. I remind you that The Irishman was also different from what we're used to when it comes to mafia movies, De Niro and Scorsese. But that's how it is, they can't make the same format of movies because we'd get bored of it.

This movie stands in its own, and shouldn't be compared with the classics. It's a different approach.

Anyway, like I said, it's not a masterpiece nor a fiasco. It's a good, decent movie for people interested in the mafia/gangster genre.

The Alto Knights- In Cinemas now My Rating - 6/10

I wondered why and how a Robert Di Niro movie based on a true story about two rival New York organised Crime bosses directed by Barry Levinson could possibly flop at the box office?

Is it because there's been so many movies along similar lines starring Robert Di Niro like The Irishman 2019, Goodfellas 1990, The Godfather 11 1974, A Bronx Tail 1993, The Untouchables 1987, and Once Upon a Time in America 1984 etc?

Perhaps audiences are a bit tired of mafioso and gangsters however for me the reason The Alto Knights is inferior to the above listed movies is misplaced ego .

By that I mean as fine an actor as DeNiro is playing two roles in one movie especially when the only difference basically is a different nose and chin only confuses the characters for the audience and is a stretch to far.

I found myself trying to differentiate between the two main characters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese both played well by Robert DeNiro however it would have been better separate actors played each role .

After all they're not even related but look like twins , it's just a silly casting choice.

The story meanders also back and forth and doesn't have much impact at all.

It's basically the story of 2 gangland bosses on a collision course as told by Frank Costello married to Bobbie played very well by Debra Messing ,nice to see her in a dramatic role.

The usual scenario of gangland violence as the 2 men who were friends as teenagers vie for control of the drug trafficking and alcohol supply on New Yorks city's streets.

Once best friends, petty jealousies and a series of betrayals set them on a deadly collision course.

For me this is a straight to streaming movie.

The Alto Knights... It takes all of the charm of GoodFellas (and is very clearly written by the same guy: Nicholas Pileggi), but it lacks the mastery that Scorsese brings, instead looking like a lazy knock-off. It has plenty of potential, but it chooses to take the easy way out and ends up feeling half-baked.

GoodFellas has one of the best narrations of all time by Henry Hill and his wife, Karen, and this movie attempts to do the same. However, it ultimately hurts more than it helps. Instead of adding on to the story, De Niro sits there and tells you the story for the first half hour. He tells you about himself and the other main characters and everyone's entire backstory, rather than letting you experience it for yourself. It starts off like nothing more than a bedtime story with some black and white stock footage of Hell's Kitchen in New York thrown on screen. Then it abandons the narration for a bit before picking it back up. It doesn't let you experience the characters and feel for them; it tells you exactly what it wants you to know, with no creativity, no room for interpretation, and no flair, all of which are things that a movie needs.

Apart from that, the writing is not particularly bad. It's nothing special, but it doesn't hurt the movie. De Niro does his best with what he's given, but the dual role ends up being too distracting. His dialogue scenes with himself feel clunky and out of place. All I could think about was how perfectly Joe Pesci would fit into that role as a short-tempered, stubborn mob boss (who lies to make himself taller).

This movie had so much potential, in both its story and its cast, but it was wasted, instead cutting corners. Yet, despite all of this, it was still a little bit of fun, and nice to see just a straightforward, traditional gangster movie. It's easy enough to look past all of its flaws and enjoy it (most of the time). There are some good moments of suspense, a few comedic lines, and even most of the side characters feel well-rounded enough to be believable. Unfortunately, this movie is only just good enough, nothing special, but it's for sure worth a watch if you get the chance.

This film was a bit like all of the other Robert De Niro Italian Mafia films, so you know what you're going to get. It's enjoyable, and by no means a bad film, but a tad formulaic.

I am unclear why De Niro played both main characters - at times it felt a little confused and, to be honest, my mind wandered to the prosthesis that went in to differentiating his looks. Was the fact he played both, a metaphor on the nature of the individuals (because this was based on real people), a commentary on the nature of the type of people involved, just a bit of fun for the actor, or an attempt to save money? Whichever, whilst it didn't have much of an impact on the film, it was odd.

As I say above, even though formulaic, an Nobel film, but with no surprises.