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The Alto Knights opens in New York City, 1957, with Frank Costello (Robert De Niro) being gunned down, a man who doesn’t consider himself a gang boss, moreso a professional gambler.
Told in flashback, with 1972 being the ‘present day’, Frank narrates back the life between him and Vito Genovese (also De Niro, playing dual roles), who’s more the gangster type and kills everyone who gets in his way, but while they both know each other from when they were kids, events have rather soured between them. Over time, Vito was getting deeper and deeper into it all, while Frank was advising him not to, since age as made him see the error of their ways, and that such violence is not the answer.
There are two scenes where the pair meet for a chat, the first in a cafe, with a mirror behind them, so I spent part of the conversation watching how things played out on that, since they can’t both be present at the same time, as there’s only one of them. Technicalities like that often turned out to be more interesting than the film, though.
No-one does crime magnate like De Niro, who’s still going strong as an actor at 81, after performances like this and Zero Day. However, along the way, the timeframe is difficult to work out, since it doesn’t tell us what year it is, as it goes back to their earlier lives, passes by the opening scene, and leads to the eventual end of their tales. It also has a fair bit of muffled dialogue, which doesn’t help.
With various individuals getting bumped off at times, sometimes in gory ways, it harks back to films like The Untouchables, and while that’s not a bad thing to aspire to be, it can’t top it, and overall, while worth a watch for De Niro fans, The Alto Knights – the title of which comes from the club they frequent, as a film, just isn’t as engaging as I felt it should be, quite possibly because it does nothing knew with a genre we’ve seen countless times before.
Its limited release also means it’s unlikely to see its money back. At the time of posting this, the film has taken $8.9m at the box office, against a budget of $50m.
Until it comes on TV, just rewatch Goodfellas.
NOTE: There are no mid- or post-credit scenes.
The Alto Knights is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release date TBA.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 123 minutes
Release date: March 21st 2025
Studio: A24
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1
(ARRIRAW)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 6/10
Director: Barry Levinson
Producers: Barry Levinson, Jason Sosnoff, Charles Winkler, David Winkler, Irwin Winkler
Screenplay: Nicholas Pileggi
Music: David Fleming
Cast:
Frank Costello / Vito Genovese: Robert De Niro
Bobbie Costello: Debra Messing
Anna Genovese: Kathrine Narducci
Vincent Gigante: Cosmo Jarvis
Albert Anastasia: Michael Rispoli
Tony Bender: Robert Uricola
Richie Boiardo: Frank Piccirillo
George Wolf: Matt Servitto
Joe Bonanno: Louis Mustillo
Tommy Lucchese: Anthony J Gallo
Carlo Gambino: James Ciccone
Joe Profaci: Joe Bacino
Young Frank: Luke Stanton
Young Vito: Antonio Cipriano
Paul Castellano: Brian Scolaro
Senator Estes Kefauver: Wallace Langham
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.