The Alto Knights: Mafia y poder

Based on a true story, we have two 1950's New York gangsters, Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, each played by Robert de Niro, who were childhood friends but are now vying for top dog status. The first scene is Frank being shot on the orders of Vito, which attempt on his life he survives. The rest of the film concerns the way(s) in which the various mob bosses try to deal with the fall-out. The climactic scene (which proves the old adage that truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction has to make sense) is farcical, and strangely out of keeping with the tone of what's gone before.

De Niro gives a great performance. Twice. But one's left with the question of why is he being asked to play dual roles? I can't see that anything is gained by this. In fact, I think the film would've been better if de Niro had played Frank and, say, Joe Pesci had played Vito.

And when de Niro is sitting opposite de Niro in the restaurant, I wanted one of them to ask "Are you looking at me?"

After seeing over the years Robert De Niro star in gangster films such as Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Casino, and The Irishman, it's astonishing to see him play gangster fresh in The Alto Knights. Sure, we've seen most of his facial and vocal turns before, but never in two different mobsters in the same film with two distinct personalities.

Narrator Frank Costello (De Nir0) is an analytical businessman not wholly invested in being a mid-twentieth century icon; his former best friend from youth, Vito Genovese (De Niro), is a hot head bound to lead the mob in the US, regardless of his friendship with current mob head, Frank. To see De Niro play both nose to nose in negotiations is to see one of the great film actors of all time.

When you look into Frank's eyes, you see latent menace that has caused countless deaths. Looking at Vito's glasses, you don't have the depth but rather a surface violence, hardly hidden. A great actor brings both distinct personalities alive.

Director Barry Levinson also brings his memorable work with Bugsy and Wag the Dog while writer Nicholas Pileggi brings traces of success from Goodfellas and Casino. With the three pedigrees converging in The Alto Knights, you must expect greatness, and you get it, maybe not throughout but enough to say that if Coppola and Brando had also been involved, this film would have been incomparable.

Most scenes are intimate as Frank's wife Bobbie (Debra Messing), and he quietly map out their fate. More flamboyant is Vito's wife, Anna (Katherine Narducci), whose courtroom histrionics as she testifies against him is the stuff of in your face while it contrasts with De Niro's subtler approach (not his usual path). The variety of acting and its excellence makes this a gangster film you should not refuse.

I watched this thinking it will be rubbish because of the low ratings. It's nowhere near as bad as the reviews say. It was more entertaining than the Irishman, which was really boring. The acting was good and some scenes were very entertaining with the sharp dialogue. You kind of feel bad for Deniro getting these negative reactions when he did a really good job playing two characters convincingly. Yeah it won't be the best mob movie you will watch but definitely doesn't deserve the negative ratings here. If you like mob history of this era you would be mad to miss this and stupid to be easily influenced by Deniro haters.

Overall, a well-done film from Barry Levinson with a fantastic performance from Debra Messing, who I feel should be considered for an Academy Award nomination. Debra was very convincing portraying Frank Costello's wife and the make-up used to age her identity was on point.

Moreover, I was first introduced about Frank Costello through cinema with the films, "Mobsters" , and "Bugsy." And, he was always came off as a background character or, a gangster with not much significant affiliation with the crime syndicates and Luciano crime family.

However, I am glad Costello's life during his later years was finally brought to the silver screen.

For being 82-years-old, I thought Bobby de Niro did one helluva job portraying both Costello and Vito Genovese.

The film does justice illustrating the historical events leading up to Frank's conflict with Vito Genovese, the background details of how Frank and Vito met in their younger ages and, Frank's eventual retirement from his life of crime.

The cast members each knew their assignment, respectively.

In particular, both Katherine Narducci and Michael Rispoli.

If the casting directors had hired other actors not too familiar with audiences, this film may have not been entertaining.

The film does move by a comfortable pace, yet with a running time of two hours, I left the theatre thinking that an extra 30 -45 minutes minutes would have created time to add more details about both Vito and Frank in their earlier days as young adults.

I really do not have any gripes or grudges about the film since I am enamored with crime dramas films involving gangsters from the Irish, Jewish, Italian, Black, English, Hispanic, heritages. To me, I find the history fascinating.

In my opinion, the film does give shades and similarities of The Irishman, Goodfellas, and also felt like Levinson's follow-up to "Bugsy." Lastly, I would say that this film is worth a viewing for all the fanatics of the crime-drama genre.

This film was a bit like all of the other Robert De Niro Italian Mafia films, so you know what you're going to get. It's enjoyable, and by no means a bad film, but a tad formulaic.

I am unclear why De Niro played both main characters - at times it felt a little confused and, to be honest, my mind wandered to the prosthesis that went in to differentiating his looks. Was the fact he played both, a metaphor on the nature of the individuals (because this was based on real people), a commentary on the nature of the type of people involved, just a bit of fun for the actor, or an attempt to save money? Whichever, whilst it didn't have much of an impact on the film, it was odd.

As I say above, even though formulaic, an Nobel film, but with no surprises.