The Alto Knights, 2025.
Directed by Barry Levinson.
Starring Robert De Niro, Debra Messing, Cosmo Jarvis, Kathrine Narducci, and Michael Rispoli.
SYNOPSIS:
Warner Bros. has issued the mob swan song story The Alto Knights on Blu-ray. You only get a code for a digital copy, with no extras found on the disc and just a one-minute micro-featurette included with the digital copy, but that’s not a surprise given how poorly this film did at the box office. I didn’t think it was as bad as those numbers might suggest, although it didn’t hit the heights of classic mob films.
Does the world need yet another mob movie? In the case of The Alto Knights, we have a film that was actually kicking around Hollywood since the 1970s under the name The Wise Guys until Warner Bros. gave it the green light, and a new name, in 2022.
Perhaps it would have been received differently had it been made in the 70s or 80s, when it could have complemented the mob movies of that era, rather than feeling like an also-ran in 2025. After all, Nicholas Pileggi, co-writer of GoodFellas, scripted this one, and Barry Levinson handled the directing duties.
Robert De Niro plays the two main roles in The Alto Knights: friendly mobsters turned adversaries Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. They’re both members of the Luciano crime family, but Frank doesn’t have the same stomach for ruthless violence as Vito does, and his desire to step down as boss makes Vito suspicious that a plan is afoot to eliminate him.
A cat-and-mouse game plays out between the two, with Frank showing how cunning he can be while Vito repeatedly displays his aggressive tendencies. While casting DeNiro in both roles smacks a bit of stunt casting, the prosthetics used, along with his considerable acting skills, made it easy for me to see them as distinct characters.
And on the subject of casting, I was leery of Debra Messing’s ability to pull off the role of Frank’s wife, Bobbie Costello, but she did an admirable job too. I didn’t find any of the cast members to be out of place in their roles.
In the end, though, I found The Alto Knights to be one of those movies that’s good but not great. I don’t know what could have elevated it into the pantheon of great mob movies, though; maybe that part of American history is simply played out. Mob movie fatigue could certainly explain why this one fared so poorly at the box office.
This Blu-ray edition comes with a code for a digital copy but no bonus features on the disc. However, the digital copy includes the one-minute One Legend, Two Mobsters, which features interviews with a couple cast members, Levinson, and producer Irwin Winkler (another Hollywood heavyweight), so obviously some work was put into creating extras for this release. (No clips with DeNiro, though.)
Maybe there was a plan to create more in-depth special features but the decision was made to drastically truncate those efforts given the box office results of this one. If so, that’s a shame, since I wouldn’t have minded perusing a more in-depth making-of, even if it was one of those cursory 20-minute pieces that cover the bare minimum.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
