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I'm rather surprised that director Martin Kemp's London gangster drama Top Dog gets only an average 5.2 based on user ratings here. Although the figure is nominally above average, I've always thought that anything less than a 6 implies not only that the film is not very good, but that is rather bad. Top Dog by ex-Spandau Ballet bassist Kemp (and I'm sure he must hate that description - I mean no one refers to ex-RC seminarian Martin Scorsese or former jobbing artist Adolf Hitler) also got less than admirable reviews in the Guardian and the Huff Post and I do wonder why: it wouldn't have won an Oscar and does tread well-trodden ground but it does so with aplomb. In simpler words: as one of its kind Top Dog isn't at all bad and a lot better than some.

Were I writing for the Guardian I might write - although it didn't, it described the film, which it gave only one star out of a possible five, as 'witless' and 'low-level ladsploitation' (note the 'clever' wordplay there which will have amused guardianistas if no one else) - that Top Dog is an investigation into what happens when testosterone-fuelled male bravado gets way out of hand. In one sense 'witless' is apt as it does well to describe the leading figure (Leo Gregory), a man astute enough to run a car dealership well enough to afford him a nice lifestyle but who otherwise can see no further than his own ego and addiction to fighting with the fans of rival clubs.

The Guardian is very unfair: Gregory's Billy Evans, a man who gets way out of his depth when he locks horns with a local gangster and then eventually comes into the sights of a far more important - and far more dangerous - gangster, is neither glorified nor portrayed in any way as enviable. In that sense Kemp's film takes quite a moral stance although I doubt he would be too happy to have that sign hung around the film's neck.

Gregory gets great support from fellow actors, but a special mention should go to Vincent Regan who as the man Billy Evans should never have tangled with - though he certainly didn't do so on purpose - can get more menace into his Northern Irish brogue when ordering a glass of orange juice in a pub than many a man could get toting a handgun. The two female leads also do a good job at portraying long-suffering wives who love their husbands but do wish they would finally grow up.

So there you have it: ignore the average '5.2' the film gets here on IMDB and most certainly ignore the sniffy review in the Guardian. Top Dog does the job and does it well - as I say better than many such films. And the ending did take me by surprise. Give it a whirl if you come across it. (I caught it on Netflix.)

I liked green street so I saw this movie while scrolling through netflix. I decided to download it to watch on the plane and it was decent to pass time.

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.

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.

I rather like a decent hooligan film....

This however was not any shade of decent..

Only watched this as Green Strret wasn't the worst football hooligan film

(not as good as ID and rise of the foot soldier anyway).

But this was poor on every aspect from the acting, storyline and even the fight sequences were unrealistically shown.

It will take a sensational film to bring me back round from avoiding Martin Kemp directed films.

Terrible.!

Wait for it to be on TV ,

it really is not worth money nor data.

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

Within the first 5 mins I thought this was going to be rubbish , and I was right . However I stuck it out and it didn't get any better . Complete and utter tosh don't waste your time on this film .

Quite a good film in its own right. However, I can't help thinking it's the "The Long Good Friday" remake. The problem is that it is nowhere near as good. It's a shame really as it isn't a bad effort

I can see why this film gets bad reviews. If you just want to see two firms batter each other watch Green Street. This film actually has a good story to it. There's a plenty of violence but that's not really the point of this film. It's about the head of a football gang, who decides to use his firm to get involved in the world of gangsters. It soon becomes clear that he's out of his league and things start going really wrong for him. There's some great acting in this. The main character plays a blinder. He looks genuinely worried and scared as he realises how badly things are going wrong. The pregnant wife of his best friend is also. Think Kathy Burke. I really enjoyed it. Great ending too.

This movie is a good watch, however at some points the storyline gets confusing.

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. **

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.

Directed by Martin Kemp and written by Dougie Brimson, Top Dog stars Leo Gregory, Ricci Harnett, Vincent Regan, Danielle Brent and Lorraine Stanley. Plot finds Gregory as a top London football hooligan who bites off more than he can chew when he muscles in on a gangster's racket action.

The British hooligan film band wagon rolls on these days regardless of quality. Where once was a viable space for these genre films to create interest and a bit of shock and awe, now is an area crammed with lads movies for lads movies sake. Top Dog is a poor film, full of half hearted performances, where most the cast realise it's once again just easy money to be made, limp direction (poor fight scenes and cheese dialogue), and a screenplay that simply adds nothing new to the over stuffed clichéd topics to hand - insultingly the audience gets to know practically nothing about the main players.

It will of course have found an audience, we know this because stuff like this keeps getting made, but the high wire days of The Football Factory (2004) and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) now seem very far away. 3/10

It seems the easy option these days if you are a British film-maker is to tell of a low-rent crime caper so I didn't go into this film with high expectations but it really did impress me.

The football hooligan story is something that has been done to death over the last few years but it is almost incidental in this film, it just provides a back-story to the characters. This film is more about how a simple act made without any real malice can backfire and escalate.

The characters are believable, the acting is good and the film moves along at a fair pace which gives a good idea of how bad things happen so quickly. Well acted, good characterisation, and a decent story, can't ask for much more than that!

I am French and this kind of films are not even released in DVD in Paris, but I crave for them, good or not. This is a typical British crime drama flick, emphasizing on the UK culture or hooligans and hoodlums, with the right atmosphere. And the crime movie code is respected, crime movie in general, from UK or not from UK. I am amazed by this ordinary family man, with a pretty house, a kid and a wife, who is also a fierce football hooligan club leader. A man who rapidly happens to be involved with gangsters who take money by force from some folks he particularly love: a couple of pub owners. OK, you have nothing exceptional here, but every crime film can not be HEAT...I love this simple but so dark, bleak and downbeat tale. The lead character maybe not the best choice, but he is convincing although. The best choice may be Vincent Reagan as the lead gangster, the kingpin, so impressive. I am lucky to possess so many UK gangsters films in my huge pile of DVD to be seen soon.I hope to find here many gems like this one.

This has to be one of the worst films I've watched Wanted to turn it off after 10 minutes. Rubbish storyline, rubbish acting , littered with school boy Errors All trying to talk as if they are Ronnie And Reggie Kray Kids at a high school could of done better on an iPhone Martin Kemp go back to singing because a Director you are not.

I've just watched Top Dog and kind of wished I hadn't. I won't provide any spoilers except to say we've seen it all before but previously better done. The only half way decent performance was Vincent Regan, the rest look they've just turned up on set to earn a few quid. Mock Cockney Gansters with a poor story, poor acting and poor direction. Go boil a kettle and watch intently...complete this procedure numerous times and reach the same excitement level

Low-budget indie films originating from the UK don't always guarantee quality. "Top dog" is proof of that. The meager attempt to blend hooliganism within English football with local crime which is connected with the more notorious mafia of the country, unfortunately turned into a fiasco. The idea isn't bad. Only they've dropped a few stitches in the implementation of it. The result doesn't leave a lasting impression and can safely be classified as another third-rate crime movie.

It's the story about Billy Evans (Leo Gregory), leader of a group of supporters of an English football club who spend their weekends with beating up supporters of the opponent. He's an exemplary family man and a person who's trusted by his blood brothers. The day he wants to help his uncle and aunt to get rid of a local extortionist gang, he doesn't realize what hornet's nest he's getting himself into. Before he knows it, he finds himself in a tricky situation with unpleasant consequences as a result. He starts to realize that hooliganism and mafia practices are two totally different disciplines.

Normally I'm always pleased with the performances in a British film, but this time something bothered me at that level. The most eye-catching performance came from Lorraine Stanley (wife of Billy's best friend). Gregory was at times convincing as the cold-blooded and unstirred leader of football fans. But during the emotional moments it all looked kind of silly. Ricci Harnett, the Machiavellian gang leader with his accompanying mocking grin, was the most intriguing character. Unfortunately he behaved like a beaten dog when sitting in front of the big chief Mr. Watson (Vincent Regan). Yet strange that such a confident thug like Mickey, and always accompanied by two bodyguards, can be beleaguered in such a simple manner. Most likely an underestimation of the opponent.

Ultimately, it's just a typical film about thugs and hooligans. The story didn't provide the necessary tension. Needless to say there were also some ridiculous scenes. Such as when the police wants to question Billy about a brawl. Billy flees and before you know it, the complete police force (and special task force) is chasing him, as if he's an escaped, most-wanted terrorist. Slightly exaggerated. The clashes in Mickey's clubs looked rather amateurish and contrived. If you want to watch a decent film about the English underworld, then I suggest you watch "Legend". And I am convinced there are better movies about hooliganism. "Top dog" was certainly not Premier League.

More reviews here : http://bit.ly/1KIdQMT

Honestly don't waste your time, nothing happens for most of the movie.

This would make an okay episode of a TV drama or soap but there is so, so much filler. It tried so hard and failed so badly.

It's a mess of wanting to be too many things at once and in the end is non of them. There's clearly a budget of some sort and theres some elements of football casuals and gangsters but must of it is a woman in a fake belly crying, or a small skinny man crying.

The sound track is all over the place but the costumes are pretty spot on.

There's other reviews slating the believability of some characters being hooligans but they've clearly never been to an away match haha The acting is about the level you'd expect for this I assume straight to dvd title so no complaints there.

If there had been anything else but all that filler I'd give it a 5 or generous 5.5 but the hodg podg tonal mess it is 2 stars.