The Couch Critic
The Couch Critic is your laid-back guide to movies and TV shows that deserve your attention—or maybe don’t. Nathan dives deep into storytelling, character development, and cinematic style with a sharp eye and a wry sense of humor. Whether it’s a blockbuster hit, a hidden gem, or a cult classic, Nathan’s relatable approach ensures every episode feels like a cozy chat with a friend who just happens to love film. Perfect for casual watchers and cinephiles alike, The Couch Critic brings thoughtful critique without the fluff. Grab your favorite snack, settle in, and let Nathan guide you through the world of screen entertainment.
The Couch Critic
From Mafia to Messiah: Reviewing Alto Knights and The Chosen
From the gritty streets of mob-controlled New York to the dusty roads of first-century Jerusalem, this week's double feature takes us through vastly different cinematic worlds with surprising results.
Robert De Niro's "Alto Knights" promised to be a quintessential mafia film with the legendary actor taking on dual roles as crime bosses Frank and Vito. While the prosthetics and visual differentiation between characters impressed, the film ultimately delivers a lukewarm experience that struggles to justify its place among 2025's most anticipated releases. Despite its documentary-style approach to the real-life takedown of American organized crime, the narrative drags and fails to captivate beyond mild historical interest. With sparse theater attendance and minimal marketing push, this 3.5/5 star offering demonstrates that even De Niro's star power can't elevate mediocre storytelling.
Meanwhile, "The Chosen" continues its remarkable journey as a faith-based phenomenon that transcends typical Christian content limitations. The first two episodes of Season 5 build methodically toward Jesus's crucifixion, using the slow-burn approach that has made previous seasons so effective. Phenomenal acting brings scripture to life without attempting to replace or alter biblical truth. When Jesus overturns tables in the temple, viewers witness His righteous anger and grief in a way that challenges our modern spiritual complacency: Are we grieved by what grieves God? This visual enhancement of familiar scripture earns the series a perfect 5/5 stars and serves as evidence that Hollywood's increasing openness to quality Christian content may represent a significant shift in entertainment trends.
Whether you're drawn to crime dramas or biblical narratives, this episode offers honest criticism and thoughtful analysis from a critic who refuses to watch anything less than everything. Subscribe now and join me next week for my surprisingly revealing take on the new Minecraft movie!
On the couch. We're laughing, crying, feeling it all, breaking down the big screen, the hits and the flaws. Grab your seat, press play. Let's take the pic. Lights camera action. Episode of the Couch Critic.
Speaker 2:I'm your host, nathan, and on today's episode, like I said on our social media platforms, we are going to be doing a double feature review. Now, one of these is actually a movie and the other is actually the first two episodes of probably one of my favorite tv shows. It is just so good. So I will talk about the movie first. It is the alto knights, which is a classic mafia mob film starring one of the I would consider quintessential mob movie actors, and that is robert de niro. Whether you like him personally, I still think he is probably one of the classic mob actors of our time, and this movie is no different.
Speaker 3:So before I can talk about my likes and dislikes, I have to go over the synopsis Two of New York City's most notorious organized crime bosses vie for control of the city streets. Crime bosses vie for control of the city streets Once best friends, petty jealousies and a series of betrayals set them on a deadly collision course.
Speaker 2:The Alto Knights again stars Robert De Niro, deborah Messing, catherine Narducci and Cosmo Jarvis, so I was actually very surprised that this was on the list of I guess it's like the most anticipated movies of 2025. This movie was on that list, and I was very surprised because it didn't really stick out to me as, my goodness, I need to go see this movie. One of the cool things about it, though, is that Robert De Niro does play two characters the character of Frank and the character of Vito, so that was pretty intriguing, and they did a really good job at making it not look exactly like just two copies of robert de niro, so that would probably be one of my likes. I thought it was a cool idea to have him play these two characters, and, like I said, they did a really good job at making it look completely different. Now, obviously, frank costello looks like robert de niro, so there's no real makeup being done. There's no real way of hiding who he is, but Vito is the more crass of the two characters, and so they did a really good job at putting prosthetics on him. He wears sunglasses most of the time, and so he kind of kind of really does disguise himself and hides himself in that character. Deborah Messing was a random casting choice. She still looks young to me, so it was kind of weird to see her character married to Robert De Niro's character, because Robert De Niro obviously is a older, much older man and for Deborah Messing to be married to to him, I guess it makes sense in the context of the film, but it just didn't really look visually like it made sense.
Speaker 2:But there's not really much to say about this movie. It was very much done like kind of documentary style, so this is based on real events. It was basically the takedown of the mafia in america and so in that context it's an interesting film. It didn't really do much for me though. There was a lot of language in it, which it's a mob movie, so it's not really surprising, and so that kind of took me out of the film. The acting was good, it was a somewhat compelling story but, like I said, for the most part it kind of dragged on a good while. I was one of two people in the movie theater to go see this. So this movie obviously isn't doing that well in the box office. I don't think it was advertised that well. It's being, you know, put out there around the same time as snow white, and even though the snow white is not doing that great either. But you know there's all these other big, no well-known movies coming out soon, so I don't see this movie really doing anything in the box office, and nowadays I don't think Robert De Niro is as big of a draw to movies as it used to be.
Speaker 2:So this is going to be a short but sweet little review of Alto Knights. It was interesting. The the story was interesting, the fact that it's based on a true story. I do like movies that are based on true stories, but other than that, it wasn't anything to write home about. So I'm going to give the Alto Knights a 3.5 out of five stars because, again, it's somewhat interesting, but it's not interesting enough to be like go out and see this Now.
Speaker 2:Going to the next thing I'm going to be talking about, as you, as you've listened to the show before, you know that I am a Christian and so I'm a big fan of Christian content that is of good quality. I wanted to say all of that altogether, so you didn't misconstrue as me saying that I'm a fan of Christian content, because I'm actually a big critic of Christian content, and so I've been very harsh when I think I needed to be. I think I needed to be and I've praised some faith-based things when I felt like I had reason to do so. So if you have been living under a rock, there's a show called the Chosen, which is supposed to be a seven season series of the ministry of Jesus Christ, and when I say this is some of the best quality content when it comes to faith based content, that would be an extreme understatement. The acting in this show is just phenomenal. It really brings the scriptures to life.
Speaker 2:And what I think is very important to say and they say this, I believe, at the beginning of every season is that this is not trying to replace scripture. This is not trying to take the place of the Bible. It actually says that it's based on the gospels and for you to get the full context of what's going on, to go and read the gospels. So this isn't saying forget reading, just watch this in place of it. Far from it. I think a lot of people who are against the chosen see it as trying to replace scripture, and that's not what this is doing at all. If anything, it's enhancing scripture. It's not adding to it, it's not taking away from it. I lead a small group for my church and one thing I was talking about from this season I'm going to be talking about- is that there were two things in these first two episodes.
Speaker 2:So what they've been doing is they've been releasing episodes in little chunks for like three weekends, and so last weekend the weekend I'm talking about in this episode was the first two episodes of season five, which is taking place around the Last Supper, and so one of the scenes that it talks about is when Jesus goes to the temple and flips the tables and everything. Well, you read scripture and you read the stories about it, but to see it visually is just next level, and so there were parts in it that I never thought about before when I read it in the Bible. But when Jesus starts to grieve over the weight of what's about to happen to him, it really puts into perspective of are we allowing what grieves God to grieve us? And there's so much injustice in the world that obviously is grieving the heart of God. Is that grieving us? And when he goes to the temple and he's angry and he's tipping over tables, does what angers God? Does that anger us? Should we have righteous anger to what is being done against the church and against God and against Jesus? And so it just put it in perspective in a way that I've never experienced by just reading it. So I think that's the purpose of this show is to not take the place of, not to add to but to enhance scripture. So this was the first two episodes and so it's basically like an introduction of what's going to happen for the rest of the series. Like an introduction of what's going to happen for the rest of the series. So, in my opinion, while I did enjoy the first two episodes, I thought the acting again was phenomenal.
Speaker 2:I will say that the first two episodes were a little slow to me, but I understand why because it's slowly, slowly getting to a point where it's about to get really intense, because this is leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus on the cross and it's slowly setting it all into motion, and so in that context, it makes sense that they're taking their time and they're making it a slow burn. So when it gets really intense, you really feel it and I felt, I feel like that's what they've done with every season. Like the first couple episodes, it's like a reintroduction of everything and a reintroduction of everything going on at the time of what the season is supposed to be taking place. And so, with that being said, I have nothing against it being slow paced, if anything, it lets you linger with what's going on and really feel what's going on and really feel for the characters that are experiencing this, and so, in that context, I think it's, I think it's great, I highly recommend it.
Speaker 2:My wife and I are going to go see the next three episodes and then the final three episodes come out the weekend of April 11th, so I'm super excited to see what they're going to do. Obviously, I know it's going to happen because you know I've read the book, but it's just really cool to see the way they present it, because they introduce things. They introduce characters that weren't mentioned in the Bible just to give some context to some of the characters, like Thomas and things like that which, again, I have nothing.
Speaker 2:I find nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 2:I find nothing wrong with that Adding a character that doesn't exist in the scriptures, does not take away anything that the scriptures already say, and so I would highly recommend the Chosen. I think it's a great show. I'm obviously going to give it a five out of five just because I think there needs to be more high quality Christian content. And I think Hollywood is starting to realize that because you know you have all these movies and TV shows from Angel Studios that are coming out. I believe there's a movie every month coming out from Angel Studios. So I'm just really excited to see what God is doing in Hollywood. But also, at the same time I was thinking about this today that you got to get to a point where you have to be cautiously optimistic as to why Hollywood is being so accepting to Christian content. And obviously they're doing it because they see that they're making money off of it, and so we have to be careful how we see what Hollywood is doing and hold them accountable to make sure that this is high quality, biblically accurate content and not just content for content sake. So that is my thoughts on the Alto Knights and the Chosen episodes one and two. I'll also be doing a full Chosen review when it all comes out all at once, so be on the lookout for that.
Speaker 2:If the Chosen is something that you're interested in, which I believe it should be, even if you're not a Christian, I just think the acting quality alone is enough for someone to want to check this out. So those are my thoughts on two completely different content related things Alternates, not a Christian movie at all, and the Chosen 100% Christian. So those are my thoughts on those two things. And next weekend I'm going to be taking on the world of Minecraft. That's right, I went to go see the Minecraft movie and I am surprised at as to what I'm going to be sharing about that movie next weekend. So be sure to be on the lookout for that. And also this Tuesday on the Couch Critic, be sure to listen to my review of Fred Claus. Yeah, I'm taking on that movie.
Speaker 1:There's nothing I will not watch for my listeners on the Couch Critic, where every movie gets its close up. So settle in close and don't miss a flick. This is the moment for the couch critic.
