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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 date)
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N/R

Click to read the article

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

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

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

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

Brainless bloodsport, Cholo-style.

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

An entertaining genre piece boasting a terrifically sinewy lead performance from Wanda De Jesus.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
12/12/07
Michael Rechtshaffen
Michael Rechtshaffen
Hollywood Reporter
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

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

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

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 mix of cinematic thrills and sagging melodrama.

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

What in God’s name was going on with this movie?

Full Review Source: Ebert & Roeper | comment Comment
08/27/07
Richard Roeper
Richard Roeper
Ebert & Roeper
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

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 Source: Long Island Press | comment Comment
08/25/07
Prairie Miller
Prairie Miller
Long Island Press
N/R

Click to read the article

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

For a film about growing up, Illegal Tender loses itself in a lot of silly juvenilia.

Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
08/25/07
Scott Tobias
Scott Tobias
AV Club

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

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
 
 
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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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