User Reviews

This a real old and creaky movie that is so devoid of energy. I'm not sure there is a single cast member under the age of 40. The De Niro double performance was forced and unnecessary.

“The Alto Knights” is a retelling of the true story of the downfall of the American Mafia. The beginning is fairly slow when it doesn’t necessarily have to be, but after the audience gets acquainted with the characters and the satisfactory, albeit vague context surrounding the plot, the story and the politics involved do get quite interesting, enough to keep the audience engaged. However, in the spirit of remaining faithful to the real life events, the plot concludes in a more anti-climactic way, rendering this another true story that might not be best told as a feature length Hollywood movie with Robert De Niro playing two completely different people.

É um filme muito redunante na carreira do Robert De Niro, mostrando-o em sua relação com um comparsa e toda teia da máfia da primeira metade do século XX, soando até mesmo como homenagem pra quem já fez obras como "O poderoso chefão" ou "O irlandês". Deste modo, sem muito a acrescentar, o filme ao menos acerta no tom, da trilha meio jocosa à escolha do elenco, é para já irmos notando a saudade que certas figuras e certos filmes farão. Assim, como homenagem, é leve e flui, já que a história se sustenta pela fgura mesmo dos atores.

An interesting premise, poorly told and terribly written. How come writers have become incapable to adapting a compelling narrative into a compellingcinematic story? The Dialogue is also terrible, frequently repeating itself without ever explaining anything.

If you've ever wondered what a mob movie would look like if it were drained of all life, creativity, and purpose, look no further than Alto Knights. This 2025 abortion, directed by Barry Levinson and written by Nicholas Pileggi, takes a genre that once thrived on tension and charisma and turns it into a tedious, directionless slog. Robert De Niro is in a dual role as rival mob bosses Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, it failed to showcase of his legendary talent of playing himself but delivers a gimmick so flat it's borderline insulting. What could have been a gritty dive into 1950s mob rivalries instead feels like a tired rehash of better films, limping along with no soul, no spark, and no reason to exist.Deniro's dual performance as Genovese and Costello is a gimmick that fails in every way. As Genovese, he's slathered in prosthetics and a laughable accent, doing a bargain-bin Joe Pesci impression that's more caricature than character. As Costello, he's so subdued he might as well be napping, delivering lines with all the enthusiasm of a man reading the phone book. Pileggi, the writer behind Goodfellas and Casino, seems to have lost his touch. Alto Knights drowns in exposition, leaning on De Niro's voice-over to narrate every plot point rather than letting the story show itself. Its not a film and more a lecture. Characters don't develop; they're just mouthpieces for historical bullet **** just over two hours, Alto Knights somehow manages to feel both rushed and endless. It tries to cram in decades of mob lore but skips the meaty conflicts, leaving a trail of half-formed characters and stakes no one cares about. The pacing is so lethargic it makes watching paint dry seem thrilling-scenes drag on with pointless dialogue, then lurch abruptly to the next beat with no rhyme or reason.Levinson, a director who once dazzled with Rain Man and Wag the Dog, seems adrift, his camera swinging wildly as if trying to wake itself up.Debra Messing and Kathrine Narducci are stuck in thankless roles Messing as Costello's wife, Bobbie, reduced to fussing over dogs and staring at the TV. It's a criminal waste of talent, but then, waste is this film's defining trait. The period details, usually a highlight in mob dramas, are half baked, as if the 1950s props were getting hard to come by.Perhaps the worst sin of Alto Knights is its redundancy. Mob movies have been done to death, and this one offers nothing new. No fresh angle, no bold twist, not even a heartfelt nod to the classics. Now that there are no longer any De Niro die hards because he has been an unhinged loser for some time now nobody will find a flicker of enjoyment in the familiar haze of fedoras and cigar smoke. If you want a mob movie, re-watch Godfather 1/2 and Goodfellas and the like. This one's just a stale, overcooked reheating of mushy mob pasta no one asked for.

In a bit of stunt casting, Robert De Niro is cast as two friends who grew up together on the streets of New York and rose to prominence as racketeers in the 50s. With the help of a prosthetic nose, it’s somewhat easy to tell them apart, although they’re both clearly De Niro. Since this is a role that he’s handled before, there’s really nothing new here. Debra Messing is a dramatic surprise as one of his wives. It doesn’t help that Nicholas Pileggi, who also wrote “Goodfellas” & “Casino,” didn’t have sufficient steam to make this story much more than a bunch of “wise guys” posturing and bickering. Legendary director Barry Levinson did what he could to add cohesion, but the focus is scattershot leaving a lot of cruel dialogue without any emotional connection. The final scene puts the historical aspect of this true story in focus, but that still doesn’t justify sitting thru this numbing gangster gabfest. BTW, the title refers to the club where they hung out. [usr =2.0]

If you could have two Robert De Niros in your project, why wouldn't you accept? For things like this, a forgettable film that offers nothing to the genre, even with its dramatization of the conflict between two of the U.S.A most notorious mobsters: Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. Besides the fatal error of milking the legendary actor in every way, the movie fails because of its flat development and its derivativeness from classic crime films.

This movie was pretty boring and lame, though I thought it was slightly better than The Irishman. De Niro should stop making mafia movies—he doesn’t bring anything like the kind of energy to them as he did in the 1990s. I had very little idea from this movie why Frank Costello was a boss of anything. De Niro’s Frank just wanders around barely saying anything intelligent, and yet somehow the whole city’s underground is kicking up to him? Please. De Niro’s Vito Genoese was a little better because at least he had some energy, but he was also terrible and hard to believe he would be a successful gangster. Goodfellas and Casino had an aura about them where you could sort of believe these were real people doing real things. Alto Knights has neither

Since its announcement in 2022, The High Knights has generated considerable anticipation among fans of the mafia genre, especially after Robert De Niro's acclaimed performance in Killers of the Flower Moon. On paper, the project seemed foolproof: an experienced director, a legendary screenwriter and one of the greatest actors in the history of cinema returning to his roots. Warner Bros. assembled a strong team, bringing Barry Levinson back after a five-year hiatus, while Nicholas Pileggi, screenwriter of classics such as Goodfellas and Casino, came out of retirement to write the script. The presence of De Niro, a name almost synonymous with the genre, further solidified the hope that this would be a great comeback for mafia cinema, a genre that, since The Irishman, seemed to be dormant. However, the execution of the film reveals that The Alto Knights is more interested in relying on nostalgia than telling an engaging and innovative **** film's biggest flaw lies in its lack of identity. Pileggi, who has written some of the best mafia movie scripts in history, seems content here to recycle tired elements of the genre, without introducing new perspectives or reflections. Levinson's direction tries to emulate the vibrant energy of Goodfellas, but without the same narrative depth or visual impact. The editing, in turn, is confusing, alternating between flashbacks and the main timeline without a clear logic, making the experience frustrating at times.With an estimated budget of US$45 million, The High Knights fails to translate this money into a convincing 50s setting. The world-building is limited, with few sets that are really explored and an art direction that fails to immerse the audience in the criminal underworld. The costumes are one of the few elements that recall the era effectively, as is the make-up that transforms Robert De Niro into Vito Genovese. However, this is not enough to give the movie the grandeur it was hoping **** biggest attraction of the film, and also one of its biggest problems, is the choice of De Niro to play both protagonists. Warner Bros. marketing emphasized this decision as a great differentiator, but in practice, the choice ends up hindering the flow of the film. Al Pacino was even tipped to share the scene with De Niro, and perhaps this was a better choice, as the burden of playing two central characters seems to overwhelm the actor. In an effort to differentiate his two performances, De Niro delivers a version of Vito Genovese that is reminiscent of Tommy DeVito from Goodfellas (Joe Pesci's character), and another character who is more restrained and strategic. Although their performances are assured, the choice to make them dual protagonists takes the dynamism out of their interactions and weakens the emotional impact of the plot. The scenes in which both characters share the screen are technically well executed, but the feeling that the movie could work better with a second actor persists **** Niro's narration, used as a resource to connect events and plug holes in the script, ends up becoming one of the biggest symptoms of The High Knights' narrative fragility. Instead of allowing the story to develop organically, the film resorts to excessive exposition, making the experience less engaging. The script doesn't effectively establish the conflict between the two protagonists, and the lack of urgency in the events takes away any emotional weight the plot could **** the end, The Alto Knights is a movie that blindly bets on audience nostalgia, but fails to deliver a reinvigorated mafia genre. With a derivative narrative, an overworked protagonist and an execution that never excites, the film proves to be a wasted opportunity. The genre, which is already struggling in terms of profitability and commercial interest, finds yet another obstacle to its revival. If The Alto Knights were a true successor to the mafia classics, it could pave the way for new productions. However, what we have is a movie that, despite bringing together a team of giants, never becomes memorable.

"The Alto Knights" is a compelling mob drama for a while but it fails to bring any real potential to this real life story and with De Niro playing dual roles it feels very distracting.