The Alto Knights 4K 2025

The Alto Knights can safely be called one of the most unexpected flops of the year. It would seem that the director was the venerable Barry Levinson, and the screenplay was written by Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote Casino, Goodfellas, and a number of other prestigious films, and the lead role was played by the renowned Robert De Niro. However, the film received a lukewarm reception from critics and audiences alike, and grossed a modest $9.5 million on a budget of $45 million. What went wrong?

New York, mid-1950s. Upon his release from prison, Vito Genovese learns that his position as boss of the mafia family is now held by Frank Costello, to whom he must now report. Unwilling to accept his loss of power, Genovese begins plotting behind his new boss's back with the aim of killing him.

Let's start with the fact that this film does not offer anything particularly new in terms of its plot. Something similar has already been told in a huge number of different films, and if you have seen the gangster films of Martin Scorsese and early Barry Levinson, you will not see anything new in this film in particular. It seems as if the events unfold according to the textbook. However, the lack of novelty and the repetitiveness of the story make it uninteresting to watch, and with a running time of over two hours, it seems frankly drawn out.

Barry Levinson's direction makes a similar impression. Technically, the film is more than well made. However, behind all this beautiful imagery, there is nothing to be felt, and as a result, the film is watched more on autopilot than with emotion and interest.

The only saving grace of this film is Robert De Niro, who plays two roles on screen and, for once, appears before the audience in an unusual role. In fact, he plays two characters who are completely different in both appearance and body language, and it is precisely the contrast between these two characters that earns him thunderous applause for his performance. The rest of the actors did not perform badly. The only exception is Cosmo Jarvis, who blatantly overacted throughout the entire film and made silly faces.