Mob Cops and Alto Knights : Is the Mafia genre dead?
It is 2025 and the latest offerings in the Mafia genre are Alto Knights and Mob Cops. The only thing the two movies have in common is that they are historical movies about the Italian mafia. Oh, and another thing they have in common is that they are both boring movies. Other than that, the two movies are in stark contrast of each other. They are polar opposites and on either side of the spectrum. Alto Knights is well funded and took 45 million dollars to make. Whilst Mob Cops is independently made and had to scramble and scrape for dimes to make the movie. You can tell Alto Knights is big budget whilst it is patently obvious Mob Cops had a shoestring budget. Secondly, Alto Knights had famous actors like De Niro and Debra Messing whilst Mob Cops had a cast of B list actors. Alto Knights was a long 2 hours long whilst Mob Cops was a short 90 minutes. But despite the differences, both movies were stale. The dialogue was perfunctory. The acting was mediocre. The pacing was snail like. The cinematography was bland. There were no unexpected plot twists and surprises. There were no characters you felt connected too and empathised with. Both movies were garbage.
If you are looking for a great movie about corrupt cops dont watch Mob Cops. Watch Gang Related instead. It is a far better film.
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Gang Related > Mob Cops |
So if a mob movie nowadays is terrible whether it is big budget or independent, what is the problem with the mafia genre? Whether a mafia movie has De Niro or some random C list actor makes no difference. Has the mafia genre reached the end of its road? Are there no more cool Mafia stories to tell? Has the public grown tired of tales of the Italian mobster? Let's discuss.
For the last few years mafia genre fans have had a serving of dog shit. We had to endure Travolta's Gotti which made the HBO Gotti seem like the Godfather. Then we were tortured by the Many Saints of Newark which proved David Chase never had the makings of a Hollywood director. Then we had The Irishman which was overrated in my opinion. It was too long. How the mighty have fallen! Gone are the days when we could watch the Godfather, Casino, Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco, The Sopranos etc. Even the poorly funded moviews were great. I enjoyed HBO's Gotti, and Witness to the Mob, This Thing of Ours, Chicago Overcoat, Wise Guys with Danny Devito. So what went wrong?
In many ways the mafia genre mirrors the real American Mafia. American Cosa Nostra is no longer the powerful organisation that ran unions, the docks and put presidents in the White House. Today the mafia is a shadow of its former self. They dont shoot their rivals brazenly in the street. Instead they get arrested for loan sharking and illegal gambling. The great George Anastasia said it best, 'The brightest Italians are no longer joining the mafia, they are becoming educators, doctors and lawyers. The Mafia is scraping the bottom of the barrel and the shallow end of the gene pool.' Nowadays the mafia is consigned to Youtube where you see former capos, bosses and soldiers tell their stories on Youtube. The mafia in real life is dead and perhaps that means the mafia in Hollywood is dead too. There are no more stories to tell.
How many times can you make movies about the mafia from the 70s and 80s? We all know the rise and fall of Gotti. We have all read about Capone, Luciano, Gambino etc. People are tired of the same stories. The problem with mafia movies these days is that there are not made to entertain. The movies are all about ticking the boxes on Wikipedia. Instead of trying to entertain movies like Alto Knights are just trying to give a factual account of historical events. The point of a movie is firstly to entertain and then to educate. But mob movies today seem to want to educate first. If you want to reenact history then make documentaries not movies. A movie does not have to go point for point with historical events. It is okay to take creative licence and embellish a bit. The reason why Goodfellas and Donnie Brasco were good is because they weren't trying to tell history word for word. We all know Lefty Guns wasnt killed in the end but the movie portrays it so it is entertaining. We all know Henry Hill wasnt involved in the murder of Billy Batts but it makes for better entertainment. The truth is not always stranger than fiction. Sometimes the truth is more boring than fiction.
So what is the way forward for the mafia genre? Clearly there is an audience for it when you look at former mafia members on social media raking that Youtube cash. There are still great mafia stories to tell. For example Mafia Prince by Scott Burnstein could make a good movie. There could also be a good film to make about the infamous Toto Riina. I would also pay money to see the life of Sammy the Bull after he left the witness protection and began selling drugs in Arizona whilst the mafia hunted him down. Hollywood could also make a movie about the Rizzutos in Canada or the Ndrangheta in Australia. There are still many mafia stories to make. The key is to make the films entertaining first and foremost. A movie does not have to be like a Wikipedia article.
So is the mafia genre dead? No. But it is riddled with bullets and is dying in the sidewalk gutter. Perhaps it can be resuscitated by fresh ideas from talented actors, directors and screenwriters. What about the mafia genre fans who desperately want their mafia fix? They can watch old mafia movies like The Godfather and Goodfellas or go to Youtube to watch former mafiosi like Sammy the Bull, Michael Franzese and Mikey Scars talk about their former lives in the mafia.
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