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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 rotten rating)
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
08/25/07
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City | comment Comment
10/18/08
Deseret News, Salt Lake City
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Peter Keough
Peter Keough
Boston Phoenix

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

Pic is too muted to have much lasting impact, and remains modestly diverting only on a scene-to-scene basis.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
08/22/07
Joe Leydon
Joe Leydon
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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 Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
12/03/07
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Brainless bloodsport, Cholo-style.

Full Review Source: NewsBlaze | comment Comment
12/17/07
Kam Williams
Kam Williams
NewsBlaze

The real mystery here is why this slapdash semi-effort didn't go straight to video.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
08/24/07
Kyle Smith
Kyle Smith
New York Post
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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 Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
08/24/07
Maitland McDonagh
Maitland McDonagh
TV Guide's Movie Guide
 
 
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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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