Top Dog

I've never quite understood why they insist in speaking with these unreal London accents!

Needless to say this could have been an average film at best, but instead we are left with what seems a poorly edited, averagely directed and some rather poor acting. The plot is weak at its best and the script is so way off from we are expecting in terms of British film standards.

That said, if you have some free time on a Wednesday afternoon, you could do a lot worse.

Not our finest British hour.

Straight off, I'm not a huge fan of the genre. I find the Mockney accents and the incessant "Geez" muttered from the edge of a sneer, a bit cringeworthy. I don't generally find it possible to believe in the characters and be taken away from the thought that they're all RADA trained actors that call each other darling when the cameras are off (Big exception to that is Tom Hardy of course!).

So I watched this film not expecting much and wasn't disappointed.

The overall story was extremely predictable, I was never at the edge of my seat. I thought it was poorly directed in so much that it didn't build tension, it didn't develop the characters to create any empathy with any of them and more importantly, when our lead has reached his crux moment we were treated to a flashback montage that wouldn't have looked out of place in a 1980s episode of Neighbours.

The acting was average overall. The best friend's wife clearly used Waynetta Slob as her inspiration (although at least her accent sounded more authentic than others).

The lead actor needed to shave and punch the make-up artist who apparently hasn't worked in Hi-Def before.

Vincent Regan was the most believable in my eyes, always a pleasure to watch. He stole every scene although that wasn't exactly the Brink's Mat Heist. Ricci Harnett is OK but better as a henchman than a boss. Jason Flemyng must have been too busy working on good projects for a real part in this film. Shame, because he's a fantastic actor.

To summarise, don't bother watching it. You already know what happens or will quickly get to the point where you don't care.

Watch the Offender instead.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Billy Evans (Leo Gregory) used to be the head of the toughest football firm in the East End, but has now settled down to a quiet family life, with a successful car dealership business under his belt. But he is forced to gather his old crew back together when new face on the crime scene Mickey (Ricci Harnett) starts running protection on some old friends of his. This results in a calamitous battle of wills that sets in motion a devastating chain of events that sets him on a collision course with the sinister Watson (Vincent Regan), the shadowy figure controlling Mickey and his mob.

These East End gangster/hooligan films are all pretty interchangeable, yet they obviously have a pretty big following, given the volume and momentum with which the new ones appear on the scene. Leo Gregory would be one such genre favourite, who appears with some regularity in these offerings, and here he is in this latest addition directed by Spandau Ballet's Martin Kemp, which seems to have appeared out of nowhere with less than a flurry of publicity. This may not be hard to comprehend, since while it's the latest addition to the genre, it offers nothing new and nothing to inject the field with any substance or quality.

Kemp only ever really attained mild success as an actor, and if this is his style as a director, he may get stopped even sooner in his tracks. Somehow, this projects a really cheap, amateurish look about it, like a film student effort, not even up to the standards of a TV movie. In amongst the barrage of mockney slang and clichés, there are some moments of suitably hair raising, shocking violence and the performances are stellar enough. Gregory has a passion and flair in his manner that suggests he's really trying, while as the highest calibre actor on offer, Regan steals the show as the softly spoken, methodical psychopath. But this is still too much of a low grade, dirt cheap effort to be anything more than just the very sum of it's parts. **

So I saw that this movie was being released and saw that, like Green Street, the writer was Dougie Brimson. Now I really liked Green Street, I'd even say it's one of my favorite movies of all-time in that genre. And I gotta say that overall, I liked Top Dog as well.

Good suspense, acting was overall good, and I liked to see a reappearance of Leo Gregory after his great performance in Green Street.

So I give this movie a 7 out of 10. I very much enjoy these movies with the English football firm backgrounds, and this one did not let down. I thought, however, that it may have been too close in resemblance to Green Street in many respects, so the lack of creativity brought my rating down a tad. Overall, good movie, highly recommended for those who like the work of Dougie Brimson / Green Street, but also recommended for everyone else as well.

Review: This is yet another typical English East End movie about a football hooligan who uses his firm to take down a underground firm. Once he finds out that he has bitten off more than he can chew, he has gone way too far and his whole world comes crumbling down around him. I was expecting something original from the director, Martin Kemp, who is famous for starring in the Krays, but it just turns out to be an average cockney movie which we have seen many times before. As usual, we have your graphic hooligan violence with loads of swearing but the director did try and give the movie some depth by making the main character have an successful business and a loving family. In all, it's not that original but it's watchable! Average!

Round-Up: Leo Gregory seems to act the same in all his movies, so it wasn't that surprising to see him playing this role. It's the same for all of the characters, like Vincent Reagan who always plays an convincing tough nut and a joy to watch. My main problem with the film is that it's quite predictable, even though the ending tried to twist the plot to make it interesting.

I recommend this movie to people who are into there typical English East End gangster movies about a football hooligan taking on an underground mob. 3/10