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).


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

Image
I came to the John Wick fan club quite late. It was only when the fourth one was announced that I decided to give the films ago and have enjoyed this a lot. They make lack anything approaching a plot but I don’t think the appeal of this series is the plot. It’s just watching Keanu Reeves beating people up and there is something satisfying about that. There is something about Bill Skarsgard that means he can do evil with such ease but is probably a nice guy in real life. The inclusion of Donnie Yen was another reason why I was looking forward to this film and he didn’t disappoint.  The fight sequence down what look like the longest set of steps ever is my abiding memory of this film. It was exhausting just watching them so its difficult to imagine what it was like to film it. The fight scenes in this film are of the same quality as they have been in the previous instalments.  I don’t know if the ending was implied to be the end of the series. I hope not, i have genuinely loved ...
Read more

Jurassic World Dominion (2022)

Image
I really enjoyed the first Jurassic World film, yes some of the things were a bit silly and it was a bit of fan service but I still enjoyed it and thought it worked quite well. The second one took a bit of a dip in quality and the whole idea that there is a secret lab underneath a massive house did seem a bit silly. It did end with a cliffhanger and the potential for this final could have been about how we were dealing with the dinosaurs. This final part of the trilogy (whether it's the final Jurassic film is doubtful) was delayed because of the pandemic although how much of that is why this film was a huge disappointment is probably going to remain a mystery. The main problem with the film is that it feels like three movies in one. You have the Claire/Owen storyline then there is the original trio’s storyline with the return of Dodgson and then the meshing of the two. This means that it feels like they are throwing a lot at the wall to see what sticks. Dodgson is portrayed as some...
Read more

MaXXXine (2024)

Image
This is the third film in the X series after X & Pearl with MaXXXine taking place six years after the events of X. We follow Maxine as she tries to become a movie star in Hollywood whilst there is a serial killer in town. The film takes advantage of the type of horror films that existed in the 1980’s so this has a more more traditional plot like a lot of 80’s horror films have. MaXXXine is soon connected to the deaths of the women by the police and soon a private detective is following her to try and force her to meet his client.  There is a portion of the film which takes place around the Bates Motel and House from Psycho II which was released in 1986 the following year this film was set and normally its a sign that the film has nothing left when it starts invoking better horror films (FYI Psycho 2 is a very good horror film and well worth your time), however this film manages to get away with it. The whole idea of having Maxine become a movie star helps create this atmos...
Read more