Illegal Tender

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

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

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The movie's a genuine oddity: a Latino action drama with one foot in bullet-spitting genre flicks -- '70s blaxploitation and '80s coke-kingpin films are the primary reference points -- and the other in raggedly personal family melodrama.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

As it is, Illegal Tender works as a melodrama, and it benefits enormously from the performance of Wanda DeJesus.

Variety Joe Leydon

Too muted to have much lasting impact, and remains modestly diverting only on a scene-to-scene basis. There's no quotable dialogue, no standout action sequence, no flashy supporting performances -- in short, nothing to lift Illegal Tender from the level of competent but inconsequential B-movie.

Entertainment Weekly Marc Bernardin

For a second, the movie has the snap of a truly surprising thriller -- like a Hispanic "Kill Bill" -- about an aging lioness willing to kill to protect her cub.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Pistol-packing De Jesus evokes Pam Grier in spots but certainly holds her own.

San Francisco Chronicle Walter Addiego

Never gets the mixture right, lurching between bullet-happy shootouts and overwrought domestic content.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

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.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

This tale of crime and punishment is wrapped in a veneer of flashy attitude but founders on mundane details.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

What kind of movie is misdirected, poorly acted, preposterously written--and still wholly entertaining? A B-movie, of course. 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.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

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

Baltimore Sun Rafer Guzman

The movie's one bright spot is Gonzalez, a refreshingly natural young actor who needs to get out of B-movies.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Never transcends its clichés.

LA Weekly Robert Wilonsky

We’re too bored to have fun.

Chicago Tribune Tasha Robinson

Illegal Tender echoes "A History of Violence," another gritty film that explores escaping a criminal past. But the vast vapidity behind Illegal Tender's ill-conceived story line is far harder to overcome.

The New York Times Jeannette Catsoulis

Luridly earnest and laughably immoral, Illegal Tender is an old genre movie with a new look. Call it Hispanixploitation.

Miami Herald Peter Debruge

Illegal Tender is the sort of crime movie in which nothing, not one detail, has been observed from real life; it's composed entirely of fantasies and falsehoods lifted from bad movies and hip-hop videos.

New York Post Kyle Smith

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