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The Alto Knights (2025)

The Alto Knights is the answer to what a Martin Scorsese film would look like if it had no involvement from Scorsese. The Alto Knights sees De Niro play crime bosses Frank Costello & Vito Genovese. At the beginning of the film someone tries to kill Frank and he decides to give up the power to Vito and the rest of the film is about that and how Vito doesn't trust Frank.

One of the few plus points of the film is Robert De Niro. Quite why he is playing both roles is a mystery. It’s either money or vanity. It made sense for Tom Hardy to play the Kray twins in Legend but seeing as Vito and Frank aren't related it can only be that they offered him more money cause it worked out slightly cheaper than hiring another actor. To be fair, De Niro does a good job in playing both roles differently enough that it makes it worth the hassle it must have been to do all of this. 

The big scene comes obviously at the end when there is a big meeting and Frank has it arranged under the premise that he will hand over power to Vito in front of all the bosses and it's just a hoax so that the bosses can get arrested by the police. This felt like Scorsese would have done it and that is about as good as it gets really. 

The main problem with the film is that it lacks the flair and style that Scorsese films have which isn't always a bad thing but when that is the style you are going for it does make it an issue with the film. There are moments which are quite fun to watch but there is always something that takes me out of it and wishing I was watching Goodfellas or Casino or something like that. This is the first film for quite a while that made me wish it was longer. It could easily have been another 25-30 minutes and it would have made all the difference cause it felt like things were cut to get it under the two hours run time (even though with credits it's just over 2 hours).

I wasn't expecting a lot from this film and seeing as it didn't deliver I can't say that I was made about what I saw. It's something that might be worth seeing when it appears on streaming but it's not something that is worth making the trip to the cinema on a Monday night (or any night for that matter).


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