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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 critic A-Z)
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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 Source: San Francisco Chronicle | comment Comment
08/24/07
Walter V. Addiego
Walter V. Addiego
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Unlike Black Snake Moan, Illegal Tender never transcends its cliches.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
08/31/07
Marjorie Baumgarten
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle

For a second, the movie has the snap of a truly surprising thriller... But then we go back to following the kid, who manages to both mope and strut along the path to manhood.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
08/22/07
Marc Bernardin
Marc Bernardin
Entertainment Weekly
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A laughable low-budget mess about third-rate drug thugs, put together with the sheen and polish of a fourth-grade Christmas pageant. Except with really loud reggaeton.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
08/24/07
N.V. Cooper
N.V. Cooper
E! Online

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

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

Full Review Source: Miami Herald | comment Comment
08/24/07
Peter Debruge
Peter Debruge
Miami Herald

The script is so formulaic, the atmosphere so bright, the acting so off, it's a bit of a mess.

Full Review Source: Mark Reviews Movies | comment Comment
08/23/07
Mark Dujsik
Mark Dujsik
Mark Reviews Movies

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

Illegal Tender has the potential to be a better film than it is.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
08/24/07
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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 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

Pointless, gratuitously violent, and stupid, stupid, stupid.

Full Review Source: Reel.com | comment Comment
08/24/07
Pam Grady
Pam Grady
Reel.com

This second-rate action drama features a mostly Latino but mostly wasted cast.

Full Review Source: Newsday | comment Comment
08/23/07
Rafer Guzman
Rafer Guzman
Newsday
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Over-the-top melodrama that offers lots of freewheeling gunplay and action in desperate search of a believable story.

Full Review Source: Maxim | comment Comment
08/25/07
Pete Hammond
Pete Hammond
Maxim

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 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
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Can you say 'overwrought,' boys and girls? I knew you could.

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
08/23/07
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

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

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