Despite a half-fun performance from Robert De Niro, The Alto Knights commits the crime of making a Mafia biographical thriller boring and extremely difficult to sit through.

The Alto Knights follows two of New York City’s most high-profile crime bosses, Frank Costello and Vito Genovese (both played by Robert De Niro) that battle for control over the city’s streets. Once best friends, petty jealousies and a slew of betrayals set them on a dangerous collision course. Directed by Barry Levinson and  Nicholas Pileggi, The Alto Knights’ interesting premise is bogged down by slow pacing and highly uninteresting execution, that not even a fun De Niro performance can make this crime film avoid jail time. 

What more can one say about the legendary Robert De Niro that hasn’t already been previously discussed? After gaining widespread acclaim and recognition for appearing in now classic crime films such as Mean Streets (1973), The Godfather Part II (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), and Raging Bull (1980), De Niro enters his Lindsay Lohan in The Parent Trap era, playing double duty as both Costello and Genovese. The two crime bosses are based on real people, and anyone interested in learning more about them outside of this film would benefit from doing a deep dive into their individual backstories, because the script sure isn’t interested in showing any of that in a cohesive or enticing manner. It attempts to follow Costello and Genovese separate lives, and how they went from friends, to enemies, to dueling Mafia leaders. Despite the 123 minute runtime, so much information is chucked at the audience in exposition that is harder to follow than a wild goose chase. 

Along with the information-dump that makes what should be an exciting biographical crime thriller feel like a forced punishment from a teacher, the pacing is almost too laid-back and sluggish. Director Barry Levinson almost seems like he’s phoning this one in, similar to a school project a kid waited until the night before to start before asking his parent for help. That doesn’t mean it’s lacking some exciting moments. The opening and closing sequences are…fun, but perhaps that’s an easy conclusion to reach compared to the rest of the movie. 

De Niro is turning in a good duel performance, but all the narration he has to deliver directly to the audience almost gives off the impression of being lectured instead of watching a film. It’s refreshing seeing him in a crime film like this again, almost providing a nice sense of nostalgia, but that might just be a yearning to be watching one of his previous works. His performance as Genovese is noticeably more interesting and engaging than Costello. When playing the latter, De Niro appears to be sleepwalking through what little he has to work with in the dialogue, while in the former, he actually seems to be having fun. The rest of the ensemble unfortunately cannot recover from the powerpoint script. Debra Messing is quite bland as Bobbie Costello. Michael Rispoli and Ed Amatrudo are criminally under-used as Albert Anastasia, an ally to Costello,  and Rudolph Halley, a New York City councilman, respectively. The only exception seems to be Cosmo Jarvis as Vincent Gigante, a rising soldier in the Genovese family. Much like Dopey in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, there’s something so entertaining about watching a silly character (whether intentional or unintentional) interact with someone clearly more intelligent. 

Despite some cool-ish performances, there doesn’t seem to be a reason for The Alto Knights to exist, particularly as a narrative film. The worst crime this film commits is making what should be an exciting film about two horribly dangerous people oh so boring. Perhaps the stories of Costello and Genovese would be better suited in a PBS documentary, because this film misses the mark.

Grade: D+

Oscar Prospects:
Likely: None
Should be Considered: None

Where to Watch: In Theaters