Illegal Tender (2007) Rank 1 Reviews

ReelzChannel (Thomas Leupp)

Illegal Tender is not without potential. Dancer-turned-director Franc. Reyes' (Empire) story, about a single mother haunted by her murdered husband's drug-dealing past, just might have worked as an intimate drama. Unfortunately, Reyes tried to turn it ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at ReelzChannel (Thomas Leupp)

Detroit News (Tom Long)

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. ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at Detroit News (Tom Long)

Worcester Telegram & Gazette (Daniel M. Kimmel)

...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. ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at Worcester Telegram & Gazette (Daniel M. Kimmel)

Ebert & Roeper (Richard Roeper)

What in God�s name was going on with this movie? ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at Ebert & Roeper (Richard Roeper)

Kalamazoo Gazette (James Sanford)

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. ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at Kalamazoo Gazette (James Sanford)

E! Online (N.V. Cooper)

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. ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at E! Online (N.V. Cooper)

Miami Herald (Peter Debruge)

It wants to be Scarface but makes The Pacifier look plausible by comparison. (Do real bodyguards hold their guns sideways?) ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at Miami Herald (Peter Debruge)

Mark Reviews Movies (Mark Dujsik)

There is a breed of movie that exists during which one can only scratch one's head to wonder how someone can so completely mishandle a simple concept. Illegal Tender is one of those movies. A basic thriller executed with not a thrill in sight or even ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at Mark Reviews Movies (Mark Dujsik)

The Flick Filosopher (MaryAnn Johanson)

Can you say â��overwrought,â�� boys and girls? I knew you could. Writer-director Franc. (yes, with a period) Reyes follows up on his equally histrionic mean-streets-of-the-Bronx gangster soap opera Empire, from 2002, with this tale of a young man, Wilson ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at The Flick Filosopher (MaryAnn Johanson)

Hollywood.com (Robert Sims)

What do you get when a small-time crook gets whacked at the exact same time his baby boyâ��s born? Yes, yet another crime story thatâ��s driven by a quest for vengeance. A straight-A student living in a swanky Connecticut suburb, Wilson De Leon, Jr. (Rick ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at Hollywood.com (Robert Sims)

Film Journal International (Daniel Eagan)

Pitched as a crime movie for and about Latinos, Illegal Tender proves that bad filmmaking doesn't discriminate along racial lines. Alternating between torpid and laughable, it offers a vision of drug dealing as a battle between vengeful parents, with ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at Film Journal International (Daniel Eagan)

Reel.com

John Singleton should be ashamed of himself. As the producer of such movies as Hustle and Flow and the director who made such a startling debut with Boyz N the Hood, his name ought to stand for something. But then he goes and produces the pointless, ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at Reel.com

Chicago Tribune (Tasha Robinson)

Potentially compelling questions of ethnicity, privilege and societal inequities lurk in the background, but instead of addressing them, the film flounders in melodrama. ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at Chicago Tribune (Tasha Robinson)

Maxim (Pete Hammond)

Over-the-top melodrama that offers lots of freewheeling gunplay and action in desperate search of a believable story. ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at Maxim (Pete Hammond)

HollywoodChicago.com (Adam Fendelman)

Though not billed as a comedy, â��Illegal Tenderâ�� is one of those yawningly generic films that tries too hard to be taken seriously and ends up making you laugh. ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at HollywoodChicago.com (Adam Fendelman)

One Guy's Opinion (Frank Swietek)

Thereâ��s a scene about halfway into this ludicrous melodrama where Wanda De Jesus rushes out the front door of her suburban Connecticut home, brandishing a pistol in each hand to protect her children against a couple of thuggish hit-men whoâ��ve come to ...read the complete Illegal Tender movie review at One Guy's Opinion (Frank Swietek)

Critic Reviews

Illegal Tender (2007) Rank 1 Reviews

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