There are some good reasons for actors to play multiple roles in a film. If they’re playing twins, for example. Or clones. Or if the film is so outlandish that it feels appropriate, like Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove.

But having Robert De Niro play real-life gangsters Frank Costello and Vito Genovese at once simply feels like a casting stunt. The end result is that Barry Levinson’s otherwise sober-minded The Alto Knights too often feels like The Patty Duke Show if Patty and Cathy had become mafiosos.

If this film feels familiar, that’s because it is. From its pedigree to its casting to its themes, Levinson’s new effort comes across like a retread. Even its original title, Wise Guys, well, you know. That doesn’t make The Alto Knights (a terrible title, by the way, taken from the name of the social club where the gangsters...