Critic Reviews

• Michael Rechtshaffen, Hollywood Reporter

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

• Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

  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.

• Mark Holcomb, Time Out New York

  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.

• Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper

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

• Walter V. Addiego, San Francisco Chronicle

  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.

• Lisa Rose, Newark Star-Ledger

  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.

• Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile

  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

• Louise Keller, Urban Cinefile

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

• Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media

  Vengeful gangster violence comes to the 'burbs.

• David Cornelius, DVDTalk.com

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

• David Thomas, Filmcritic.com

  bland and forgettable.

• Kam Williams, Sly Fox

  Can anybody say Latinosploit?

• Kam Williams, NewsBlaze

  Brainless bloodsport, Cholo-style.

• Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze

  A 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.

• Adam Fendelman, HollywoodChicago.com

  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.

• Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle

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

• Donald Munro, Fresno Bee

  A mix of cinematic thrills and sagging melodrama.

• Pete Hammond, Maxim

  Over-the-top melodrama that offers lots of freewheeling gunplay and action in desperate search of a believable story.

• Prairie Miller, Long Island Press

  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.

Read all 19 critic reviews