The Alto Knights [Blu-Ray]

Director: Barry Levinson

Cast: Robert De Niro, Debra Messing, Kathrine Narducci

Release Date: May 27, 2025

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 5/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

The film follows two of New York’s most notorious organized crime bosses, Frank Costello (De Niro) and Vito Genovese (De Niro), as they vie for control of the city’s streets. Once the best of friends, petty jealousies and a series of betrayals place them on a deadly collision course that will reshape the Mafia (and America) forever.

Inspired by the true story, ‘The Alto Knights’ chronicles the complicated relationship between notorious crime bosses Frank Costello and Vito Genovese, two childhood friends who grew up together and were as close as brothers, rising through the ranks and building an empire, yet over the course of time began to see different endgames for their professional lives which combined with bitterness, jealousy and some other factors eventually put them on opposing sides of the underworld. Amid it all, the bond they share remains to a degree, at least until one makes a move on the other that is far more difficult to forgive.

Directed by Barry Levinson (Rain Man, Rock the Kasbah) from a screenplay written by Nicholas Pileggi (Casino), Levinson does a capable job at the helm of ‘The Alto Knights’ competently guiding along the tale with care, even if unable to offer anything overly unique or noteworthy that hasn’t been done and redone before. The film’s cast includes Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon) in a dual role, along with Debra Messing (TV’s Will & Grace), Kathrine Narducci (The Irishman), Michael Rispoli (TV’s The Deuce), Michael Adler (Peppermint) and more, with most offering largely solid performances in each of their respective roles.

‘The Alto Knights’ is a competently made and decent enough gangster saga that explores an intriguing story of two lifelong friends who end up on opposite ends of each other as each builds toward a future with different ideals and goals, eventually leading to a violent act that changes everything. It often has its intentions in the right place and De Niro certainly never underwhelms, although it can be mildly distracting at times to see him portraying two unrelated characters which can occasionally take away from the story. While it has plenty of elements going for it, it also struggles to find anything unique or fresh to do with the content, instead often rehashing numerous scenarios and situations that we’ve seen more than a few times already.

If not for the cast and elements of the production, ‘The Alto Knights’ almost plays out like a miniseries at times in the way it jumps from one element and period of time to another in order to try and better flesh out these characters and allow us to understand their relationship, bond and the eventual rift that divides them. ‘The Alto Knights’ definitely isn’t a bad film, but it also never really evolves into a good film either and while it is entertaining and often quite fascinating, it’s never quite able to find anything to help it really excel beyond average, but that also doesn’t mean it won’t be thoroughly enjoyed by many who have a soft spot for these type of gangster movies.

Overall, ‘The Alto Knights’ is a fairly entertaining and intriguing gangster tale inspired by a true story that benefits from a capable cast led by the ever-talented Robert De Niro who takes on a dual role for the film, but even the talented cast and director are never quite able to help this one build beyond its average and largely unoriginal story and delivery. Even if it may not be anything incredible to speak of, ‘The Alto Knights’ certainly still has its charms and  dedicated fans of filmmaker Barry Levinson and of star Robert De Niro will very likely still want to make a point of checking this one out at some point if you missed it in theaters. While there will surely be many who would love to own it, I would encourage renting it before making a blind purchase just to be safe because there will be a handful of folks expecting another Casino or Goodfellas who will probably end up disappointed or underwhelmed by it.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘The Alto Knights’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 2.39:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks great as a whole and provides a clean, sharp and richly detailed presentation from start to finish that’s absent of any unexpected issues to be uncovered along the way. Detail is rewarding and everything from character specifics to city streets and other settings look sharp and solid, while coloring is rich and black levels tend to remain clean, deep and problem free throughout. Overall, this is a very nice High Definition presentation that holds up nicely at every turn and shouldn’t disappoint.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 channel compatible) soundtrack. Please note that this review pertains solely to the Dolby TrueHD 7.1 audio presentation. This multichannel soundtrack sounds very good itself and offers a crisp, clean and frequently immersive audio presentation throughout. It takes advantage of all seven available channels in order to send music, action effects, bits of crowd chatter and quite a bit more repeatedly moving throughout the various speakers whenever appropriate, while still making certain that any dialogue or other audio elements that might occur simultaneously remain clean and fully audible throughout. Overall, this is a fantastic Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 compatible) soundtrack that delivers admirably and should easily satisfy fans as well as first time viewers.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘The Alto Knights’ does not include any bonus content.

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 5/10
Disc Rating: 7/10

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‘The Alto Knights’ Arrives on Blu-ray & DVD May 27, 2025 & is Now Available on Digital from Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment

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You can purchase ‘The Alto Knights’ on Blu-ray at Amazon HERE!

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