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.

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. **

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 .

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 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.