I absolutely despise the idea that a movie should or could be split into a streaming series. However, for a story as grand and large as The Alto Knights, it might have made more sense. The film is only two hours long and yet, it tells the expansive story of Frank Costello and his rise to power over organized crime. His longtime friend Vito gets sent to prison and Frank takes over and cleans up the business a bit. When Vito returns, though, it’s when things start to go awry. The film features Robert De Niro in a double role as Frank and Vito, as well as Cosmo Jarvis, Debra Messing, Katherine Narducci, and Michael Rispoli. The real question about The Alto Knights is whether or not the film can succeed through a bit of a rushed story.

It’s an interesting idea to feature an actor as prestigious and legendary as Robert De Niro in a double role like this. Another WB movie out in theaters now, Mickey 17 featured a similar idea, but that’s one person playing two versions of the same character. Here, Frank and Vito are two sides of the same coin, but they couldn’t be more different. Frank is calculated and methodical. He wants to be seen as a socialite and someone who mingles with politicians at fancy dinners. Vito is your classic gangster. Like Tommy from Goodfellas, he’s impulsive and violent.

That relationship and Frank’s coming and going between gangster and socialite is the crux of The Alto Knights. It’s about a guy wanting to leave his life in the mob behind, but getting dragged back in.

The movie kicks off with a bang. A gunshot that was supposed to kill Frank, but the shooter is inept. After retelling the life story of Frank and Vito, the movie never really hits another gear. It sort of meanders between scenes like they’re vignettes. There’s no real tension to build up, one because we hear Frank’s voiceover throughout the film, knowing he’s going to survive, and two because it’s two elderly gentlemen going at one another. It all comes down to the pace of the film. That bleeds into the characters of the film. In scenes where you’re supposed to feel any sort of tension like when Frank is getting grilled in the first-ever televised Senate hearing, the way the film is edited saps all of it.

The big finale to the film, a meeting of the mob bosses in upstate New York, is neutered as well. The attitude that Frank provides is the one that we get on screen. “Let’s just stop for apples, let’s just stop for coffee, it doesn’t really matter when we get there.” That’s how I felt watching this movie, it was only two hours long but it felt like it was much longer.

I would love to say that I didn’t enjoy The Alto Knights very much, but your dad or grandfather would love it. I’m not even sure of that. For a movie that presents itself as two mob bosses vying for control of the New York streets, it commits the cardinal sin of being boring. It plays out more like a History Channel documentary on the true story than an actual movie with stakes. Having Robert De Niro play dual roles like this might have been more interesting in a film that had a better screenplay and less choppy editing. His performance is not enough to save the movie from being flat-out boring.

There’s a story here about someone rising up from the lower class to the top of the mob world that would have been interesting with a real-life spin on it. However, The Alto Knights doesn’t provide any sort of tension or action that would make this story a better movie.

The Alto Knights is out in theaters on March 21st, 2025.

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