The Alto Knights

"Too busy laying the past to rest to bring it back to life."

"The net effect is ultimately so gimmicky that it saps the movie of its intended seriousness."

"If there was any doubt as to De Niro’s greatness, it’s laid to rest in these face-to-face confrontations."

"Feels like handsomely crafted Scorsese-lite, but enjoyably so, like sinking into a shabby but much-loved armchair."

"A ho-hum Mafia thriller that won’t be entering the pantheon."

"...while I applaud Hollywood’s willingness to let its veterans keep going, the film is half-hearted enough to suggest an awareness of having arrived too late."

"Despite its pedigree, doesn’t rise anywhere near the heights of its glorious predecessors."

"Those who hunger for De Niro in mobster mode will get more than their fill."

"Take away the "De Niro Con: The Movie" bona fides, and you’ve got nothing but a fancy "Discovery" special. Forget about it."

"This script is merely a collection of gangster anecdotes and clichés."

"Gimmicky, grating, draggy..."

"If you take it on its own terms—as an eccentric but entertaining curio--there’s still plenty of fun to be had."

"The unimaginative rendering plays less like an ode to a genre than a wheezing retread."

"The film’s climax fails to raise much of a heartbeat in this boglike slog."

"The plot goes nowhere glacially."

"It’s De Niro’s Frankness that keeps you watching."

"Feels like the kind of serious, genre-inflected drama we could use more of. But it’s totally inert."

"There is a real story somewhere here, but Levinson seems unsure what to do with it, and often only half interested."

"It’s one notch above “Whatever!”"

"Anything that comes across like a deleted scene from Scorsese provides welcome jolts of laughter to the otherwise dry proceedings."