Top Dog (2014)

the audience applauded

That was an excellent one.

Simply A Masterpiece

Good movie but grossly overrated

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.

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

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.