The Alto Knights (2025) review

Childhood pals Frank Costello (Robert De Niro) and Vito Genovese (De Niro again), who were associated with The Alto Knights Social Club, grow up to become big figures in the Mafia but clash in their later years when Vito (unwisely) marries drag bar owner Anna (Kathrine Narducci), she takes him to court, Frank's dragged into their mess ... and there's also a botched hit on Frank that was ordered by Vito.  It seems reasonable to bring together screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, cinematographer Dante Spinotti and De Niro in order to create a decent mob movie, except this is an absolutely terrible Scorsese knock-off (with a similar soundtrack too) that offers nothing new about its notorious real-life characters or the subject itself and all it does is state that crime does pay if you're sneaky enough and hire the right lawyers.  It drifts into parody for the scenes where Bob has to literally argue with himself, and while no one can doubt he's a generational talent couldn't they have cast someone else to play Vito so it wasn't such a distraction?  Levinson, currently in his 80's, has released a few notable movies in the past ... isn't this the wrong time to try to mimic a peer?