Top Dog

source: Top Dog

Do you like films in which a bunch of idiots smash stuff up and assault each other? Then this is the one for you! Leo Gregory (so good in Green Street) is on top form as Top Dog, a Spurs fan who owns a second hand car lot. One day, Top Dog visits his aunt and uncle's boozer and finds out that some local mugs are demanding protection money from them. Top Dog doesn't like this. He doesn't like it at all. So he gets his Spurs mates to smash stuff up and assault people. In return, the local mugs also smash stuff up and assault people. It sounds overly simplistic but, believe me, this is a profound meditation on the human condition, featuring stylish direction by Spandau Ballet man, a cracking, multi-layered script and Oscar worthy acting from Leo as Top Dog and some other people you've seen in various 'geezers be drinking lager and fighting' Brit flicks. This amazing movie is currently available on Netflix. I implore you, good people, watch it and give it the five star rating it so richly deserves.

I was expecting something along the lines more lock -stock for a nice watch with a nice plot some laughs and relative violence , well what happened, Film totally bereft of a plot or a scanty plot bereft of any twist, character giving birth in the bath at home while her husband is getting kicked to death is 1 of maybe 3 scenes that show you a glimpse that the film makers may or may not have been working to a story board but its ending is possibly its biggest mystery it was like the characters had to be their for the climax and that was it, the narrator talked a great talk but when he came to London as the box he forgot how to be a gangster and was looking to get caught for nothing. Really sloppy directing with few good scenes acting was disappointment but that was probably down to direction and scripting or lack of. would not recommend

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 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.

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. **

Having followed my team home and away in the 70's and 80's I found the confrontation scenes laughable, not sure how thick you would have to be to want to face people armed with knifes, bottles and baseball bats most fans wanted to know where the pub was when they travelled away. The story is pretty predictable Billy Evans played by Leo Gregory gets in way over his head when he starts a pitch war with Mickey played by Ricci Harnett. The major problem is everyone seems to be trying to out leery everyone else which becomes a bit wearisome, the best actor by a country mile is Vincent Regan who understands less is more. Not the worst Saturday night Sky movie but unfortunately Martin Kemp makes a hash of the film with lack of pace, building up tension, empathy for characters, loved one posters comment "Lorraine Stanley playing Julie appears to have based her character on Waynetta Slob" had me laughing out loud this morning.

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.

Top Dog does what it says on the tin - a London crime thriller with everything you'd expect something of this ilk to contain. 'Geezers' who hiss their dialogue through gritted teeth, hookey goings on in the shady underworld of extortion and strip clubs, men who only wear black, worlds that fall apart because of a twisted version of 'justice', big crime bosses who only whisper deeply profound things. In sum, enough to keep any gangster movie fan's sofa surrounded with a growing collection of empty lager cans and Monster Munch bags throughout its 1 and half hour run. As director, Martin Kemp (best known from his Spandau Ballet days) holds on to the reins most of the time though he brings nothing new to the genre. It's all fairly predictable and goes through the motions in a way even the most discerning viewer can understand. Clearly the ending was set up in such a way so as to encourage us to believe more of the same will follow. If it does, it needs a better script, correctly ironed out and with fewer clichéd characters. It passed a rainy afternoon.