Illegal Tender: Critic Reviews

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.

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.

A solid meat-and-potatoes B-movie with enough personality to spin it in unexpected directions.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

This is a story that sizzles with its themes of corruption, infidelity, racism and power. But there's a vital flaw ...

There are so many chances for Illegal Tender to get things right that it's depressing to realize that it misses all of them.

bland and forgettable.

Brainless bloodsport, Cholo-style.

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.

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

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.

A mix of cinematic thrills and sagging melodrama.

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

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