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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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21 - 40 (sorted by date)
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Pointless, gratuitously violent, and stupid, stupid, stupid.

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

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

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

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

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

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's supposed to be an underlying message here about the value of family and giving up the bad life for respectability, but writer-director Franc Reyes is really just using it as an excuse for a standard (at best) gangland shoot-'em-up.

Full Review Source: Detroit News | comment Comment
08/24/07
Tom Long
Tom Long
Detroit News

A cohesive story is an afterthought in yet another gangster movie that pretends to denounce violence and materialism while so obviously reveling in it.

Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | comment Comment
08/24/07
Terry Lawson
Terry Lawson
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Potentially compelling questions of ethnicity, privilege and societal inequities lurk in the background, but instead of addressing them, the film flounders in melodrama.

Full Review Source: Chicago Tribune | comment Comment
08/24/07
Tasha Robinson
Tasha Robinson
Chicago Tribune

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

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

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

Illegal Tender has its moments -- including the aforementioned shootout involving Millie -- but it is ultimately undone by the litany of genre cliches it embraces.

Full Review Source: IGN Movies | comment Comment
08/24/07
Stax
Stax
IGN 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

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

Grace is not the film's strong suit. But trashy -- albeit sporadic -- fun is.

Full Review Source: Cinematical | comment Comment
08/24/07
Nick Schager
Nick Schager
Cinematical

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)

...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

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

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
 
 
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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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