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Movies / On DVD / Illegal Tender
Illegal Tender

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Illegal Tender (2007)

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Reviews Counted:47

Fresh:8

Rotten:39

Average Rating:4/10

Consensus: Lackluster acting and a ridiculous plot make the over-the-top Illegal Tender an unrealistic bust.

Rated: R [See Full Rating] for violence, language and some sexuality.

Runtime: 1 hr 48 mins

Genre: Dramas

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... 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 [More]

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

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

Director: Franc. Reyes

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

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Release:

Dec 18, 2007

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Reviews for Illegal Tender

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1 - 20 (sorted by fresh rating)
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Clearly aware of the impact of visual style on the narrative, Jonathan Ogilvie uses a stylised 1920 Australian setting for a love triangle that involves all the basic drivers of human frailty

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
09/13/08
Andrew L. Urban
Andrew L. Urban
Urban Cinefile

A problematic but compelling exaltation of violence, privilege, and ethnic pride, Illegal Tender is incessantly but hotly scored, suggesting something of a Sirk melodrama for our Reggaeton times.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
08/20/07
Ed Gonzalez
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

definitely has the market cornered on sexy suave mothers not afraid to pull out a mini-arsenal in order to protect their families.

Full Review Source: Gazette (MD) | comment Comment
08/24/07
Jeffrey Lyles
Jeffrey Lyles
Gazette (MD)

Wanda De Jesus' Pam Grier-worthy performance is the life force of the film. She's like a domestic Foxy Brown.

Full Review Source: Sun Publications (Chicago, IL) | comment Comment
08/23/07
Josh Larsen
Josh Larsen
Sun Publications (Chicago, IL)

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 Source: Newark Star-Ledger | comment Comment
08/24/07
Lisa Rose
Lisa Rose
Newark Star-Ledger
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This is a story that sizzles with its themes of corruption, infidelity, racism and power. But there's a vital flaw ...

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
09/13/08
Louise Keller
Louise Keller
Urban Cinefile

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 Source: Time Out New York | comment Comment
08/30/07
Mark Holcomb
Mark Holcomb
Time Out New York

A solid meat-and-potatoes B-movie with enough personality to spin it in unexpected directions.

Full Review Source: Boston Globe | comment Comment
08/24/07
Ty Burr
Ty Burr
Boston Globe

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 Source: HollywoodChicago.com | comment Comment
09/20/07
Adam Fendelman
Adam Fendelman
HollywoodChicago.com

A throwback to 1970s blaxploitation flicks, with a Latin accent, Illegal Tender would be a brassy, sassy guilty pleasure if it were more, well, pleasurable.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
08/23/07
Ann Hornaday
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post

It's helpful if you walk in with the expectation that it is a genre picture -- not a parody, not camp, but a loving homage to gangster movies of the 1980s like Scarface.

Full Review Source: Associated Press | comment Comment
08/24/07
Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire
Associated Press
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The movie isn't manic enough to qualify as pulp or coherent enough to serve as a social critique.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
08/24/07
Daniel Eagan
Daniel Eagan
Film Journal International

...a lurid and overwrought action film that imagines it's a drama of a family in crisis. In the end it doesn't really succeed as either.

Full Review Source: Worcester Telegram & Gazette | comment Comment
08/24/07
Daniel M. Kimmel
Daniel M. Kimmel
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

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 Source: DVDTalk.com | comment Comment
01/28/08
David Cornelius
David Cornelius
DVDTalk.com

bland and forgettable.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
12/29/07
David Thomas
David Thomas
Filmcritic.com

A mix of cinematic thrills and sagging melodrama.

Full Review Source: Fresno Bee | comment Comment
08/29/07
Donald Munro
Donald Munro
Fresno Bee

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 Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
08/24/07
Elizabeth Weitzman
Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News

Illegal Tender isn't a very good film, but it shows a genre filmmaker who is full of ideas and unwilling to settle.

Full Review Source: Film Blather | comment Comment
08/23/07
Eugene Novikov
Eugene Novikov
Film Blather

Pure B-movie hokum...a cheesy, goofy combination of family melodrama and gangster cliche that strains not only credulity but patience.

Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion | comment Comment
08/23/07
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

De Jesus' outbursts are the only excitement in 'Illegal,' since the performances of most of the rest of the cast are barely amateurish and Reyes' story is not so much old-school as it is old-hat.

Full Review Source: Kalamazoo Gazette | comment Comment
08/24/07
James Sanford
James Sanford
Kalamazoo Gazette
 
 
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Latest News for Illegal Tender

August 25, 2007: Director Reyes compounds cultural negativity in this bloody shoot-em-up, with the accent on ruthless South Bronx drug dealers with lifelong grudges, and their scantily clad Latina 'Simple Simon Says' assassin sidekicks. Opens in new window
More...

April 28, 2007: Trailer & Poster review Opens in new window
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