This year was supposed to mark the return of 81-year-old director Barry Levinson. His latest, “Alto Knights,” Formerly titled “Wise Guys,” was set to become Warner Bros’ first original feature of the Warner Bros. Discovery era — a period mobster drama starring Robert De Niro in dual roles.
Notice, I’m using past tense. That’s because “Alto Knights” has been shifted out of its November 2024 launch and into a March 21, 2025 release slot. The film had test-screened in January, and the more reactions I hear about this one, the more it looks like a a stinker.
Here’s one of the recent reactions I gathered on 01.20.24:
I was at the Alto Knights test screening last Wednesday at the Regal Paseo as well. I had a completely different takeaway; one of the worst films I had ever seen tested, and a huge letdown given the pedigree. De Niro plays the dual roles to almost no end, and it results in a movie where the two main characters can only interact while sitting perfectly still across from one another, on opposite ends of a table. The entire story hinges on the dissolution of a lifelong friendship between two mobster, and the eventual betrayal in the form of an assassination attempt. But it takes no time to explore the foundation of that friendship before the feud is already underway. There are a handful of really outstanding sequences, but between the dull and obliging “wife character,” they stick Debra Messing in, and some really sloppy filmmaking, it doesn’t amount to anymore than the sum of its parts. It looks like there’s 10 months to fix things up, but I can’t see a path to salvaging this without at least some reshoots.
I have no idea if reshoots are going to happen for this one, or if they’re just going with whatever cut they currently have. I don’t know if giving Levinson $50 million to make a movie was the smartest idea — he hasn’t made anything great (theatrically speaking) since 1997’s “Wag the Dog.” A few of his HBO movies, especially 2010’s “You Don’t Know Jack,” were quite good.
De Niro and the mobster genre go hand in hand and “Wise Guys,” which was very much intended for theatrical distribution, has been touted as Levinson’s return to big and bold studio filmmaking. Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote “Wiseguy,” the 1985 book that was the basis for “Goodfellas,” penned the screenplay for “Alto Knights”.
The film revolves around Vito Genovese and Frank Costello, two Italian-American crime bosses of the 20th century. In 1957, Genovese attempted to assassinate Costello but failed, then things got out of hand. Why did they decide to have De Niro play both roles?
Levinson was all the rage in the ‘80s and ‘90s, a go-to filmmaker for smart, adult-oriented Oscar contenders. His résumé is honestly one of the more underrated in Hollywood: “Diner”, “The Natural”, “Good Morning Vietnam”, “Bugsy”, “Sleepers”, “Rain Man”, “Wag the Dog” and many more.
Edward Berger seems to have settled on what comes next. His Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, is now holding casting calls, with production eyed for January.