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MOVIES / ON DVD / ILLEGAL TENDER
Illegal Tender

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Illegal Tender (2007)

13%
13%
12%
N/A
N/A
N/A
13 %
Reviews Counted: 45 Fresh: 6  Rotten:39 Average Rating: 3.9/10
 
Consensus: Lackluster acting and a ridiculous plot make Illegal Tender a bust. Lackluster acting and a ridiculous plot make the over-the-top Illegal Tender an unrealistic bust. more
 
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins
Theatrical Release: Aug 24, 2007 Limited
Box Office: $3,054,430
Synopsis:
After the gangsters who killed his father come to settle a score, a teenage boy and his mother turn the tables on the killers. Producer John Singleton (Four Brothers, Hustle & Flow) and writer/director Franc. Reyes (Empire) join forces to tell the story of one Latino family's quest for honor... [More]
After the gangsters who killed his father come to settle a score, a teenage boy and his mother turn the tables on the killers. Producer John Singleton (Four Brothers, Hustle & Flow) and writer/director Franc. Reyes (Empire) join forces to tell the story of one Latino family's quest for honor and revenge as the hunted become the hunters in the new thriller Illegal Tender. Wilson De Leon, Jr. (Rick Gonzalez) is an exceptional college student with an adoring girlfriend, doting mother and a future full of promise. He has never wanted for anything, and he has never been forced to stand his ground. But when ghosts from his mother's past come back to haunt his present, he must defend his family...and quickly turn into the strong man his father prayed he'd become. Nothing could stop Wilson's mother, Millie (Wanda De Jesus), from protecting her two boys. Forced to flee her home after gangsters killed her husband, she made an oath to give her children only the best. But all that changes when an enemy from the past catches up with them. It's finally time to take action--and now, they're done running. Weapons at the ready, Wilson, Jr. and Millie prepare for a final showdown with the murderer who robbed him of a father and her of a husband. Now, in a battle fueled by family ties and blood feuds, it will become very clear what happens when anyone tries to come between this son and his mother. --© Universal Pictures [Less]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Rick Gonzalez, Wanda De Jesus, Dania Ramirez, Tego Calderon, Manny Perez

Director: Franc. Reyes
Screenwriter: Franc. Reyes
Producer: John Singleton
Composer: Heitor Pereira

DVD Info

Release:

Dec 18, 2007

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Snap Case
  • Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.40

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English, Spanish
  • Subtitles - English (SDH), French, Spanish - Optional

Additional Release Material:

  • Deleted Scenes
  • Featurette - 1. Making of ILLEGAL TENDER
  • 2. Making of "Dame Dame" Music Video
  • Music Video - "Dame Dame" - Que No Featuring Dicky Ranking and Abusivo

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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Ratings Image

There are so many chances for Illegal Tender to get things right that it's depressing to realize that it misses all of them.

Full Review | Comment
01/28/08 02:28 PM
David Cornelius
DVDTalk.com
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bland and forgettable.

Full Review | Comment
12/29/07 07:42 PM
David Thomas
Filmcritic.com
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Brainless bloodsport, Cholo-style.

Full Review | Comment
12/17/07 10:44 AM
Kam Williams
NewsBlaze
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An entertaining genre piece boasting a terrifically sinewy lead performance from Wanda De Jesus.

Full Review | Comment
12/12/07 03:15 AM
Michael Rechtshaffen
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image

More care seems to have been taken with the cut of Gonzalez's sideburns than with the shape of the story, and the hyperbolic soundtrack does most of the work of the mise en scene.

Full Review | Comment
12/03/07 04:38 PM
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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You know the film is off to a paltry start when you see the rookie Rick Gonzalez attempt to strut bad-boy, awww-yeah stuff. Instead, he feels like a 21-year-old boy just going through puberty.

Full Review | Comment
09/20/07 01:52 PM
Adam Fendelman
HollywoodChicago.com
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Unlike Black Snake Moan, Illegal Tender never transcends its cliches.

Full Review | Comment
08/31/07 03:14 PM
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle
Ratings Image

It’s hard to shake the impression that this movie has the sort of penny-pinching authenticity Quentin Tarantino’s been trying for his entire career.

Full Review | Comment
08/30/07 03:16 AM
Mark Holcomb
Time Out New York
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A mix of cinematic thrills and sagging melodrama.

Full Review | Comment
08/29/07 02:07 PM
Donald Munro
Fresno Bee
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What in God’s name was going on with this movie?

Full Review | Comment
08/27/07 11:15 AM
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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Over-the-top melodrama that offers lots of freewheeling gunplay and action in desperate search of a believable story.

Full Review | Comment
08/25/07 10:45 PM
Pete Hammond
Maxim
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There's a supposed family values clause tossed into the violent mix that goes something like, the family that slays together, stays together. And with assassins closing in, mom needs her son to spend some quality time with her, mowing them all down.

Full Review | Comment
08/25/07 03:55 PM
Prairie Miller
Long Island Press
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For a film about growing up, Illegal Tender loses itself in a lot of silly juvenilia.

Full Review | Comment
08/25/07 06:20 AM
Scott Tobias
Onion AV Club
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Produced by John Singleton for writer-director Franc. Reyes, this preposterous tale of crime-family values should be far more entertaining than it is.

Full Review | Comment
08/24/07 04:21 PM
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide
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Plenty of movies have combined a blazing-guns revenge story with a family dynamics drama, but Illegal Tender never gets the mixture right, lurching between bullet-happy shootouts and overwrought domestic content.

Full Review | Comment
08/24/07 04:19 PM
Walter V. Addiego
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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Pointless, gratuitously violent, and stupid, stupid, stupid.

Full Review | Comment
08/24/07 04:16 PM
Pam Grady
Reel.com
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Illegal Tender isn't quite the mess you expect this time of year, a film that achieves a certain level of originality by reversing gender roles.

Full Review | Comment
08/24/07 04:14 PM
Lisa Rose
Newark Star-Ledger
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The real mystery here is why this slapdash semi-effort didn't go straight to video.

Full Review | Comment
08/24/07 04:11 PM
Kyle Smith
New York Post
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While Illegal Tender has misguided pretensions towards Serious Filmmaking, it's surprisingly likeable if you see it instead as a cheesy thriller good for a lazy Friday night.

Full Review | Comment
08/24/07 04:08 PM
Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News
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Ratings Image

It wants to be Scarface but makes The Pacifier look plausible by comparison. (Do real bodyguards hold their guns sideways?)

Full Review | Comment
08/24/07 04:06 PM
Peter Debruge
Miami Herald
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Related Forums

Review: ‘Illegal Tender’ is must-miss movie of summer
by: filmforlife 12/16/07


DVD should be out today
by: blooker 8/26/07


REEL_REVIEWER
(CinemaLatino)-ILLEGAL TENDER opens in 512 theaters on Friday, August 24th!!!
by: REEL_REVIEWER 8/23/07


REEL_REVIEWER
(CinemaLatino)-ILLEGAL TENDER opens in 512 theaters on Friday, August 24th!!!
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REEL_REVIEWER
(CinemaLatino)-ILLEGAL TENDER opens in 512 theaters on Friday, August 24th!!!
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