Waste of time

Excellent, smart action film.

Crappy film

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

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.

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

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.

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