Term Life (2016)

Sorry, this movie sucks

Great Film overall

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

Nick Barrow (Vince Vaughn) plans heists and then sells the plans, an occupation I didn't know existed. When the robbers get killed, Nick realizes he was set up and a number of people come looking for him. He becomes concerned about his estranged teen daughter Cate (Hailee Steinfeld). Yes he does take out a life insurance policy and then we never hear about it again until the very end. Nick goes on the run with his daughter, who develops a love-hate moody teen relationship with dad.Nick is no Liam Neeson, although he can get the upper hand by using his head. Cate quickly learns from dad as this becomes a heart warming crime drama with the promise of a better sequel, should they opt to go that way. Hailee Steinfeld did an excellent job. Soft 4 starsGuide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

"Term Life" succeeds as an action film and a drama of father-daughter bonding primarily because it does not take itself too seriously. The film is designed as light entertainment with no other pretensions.Vince Vaughn is good as the beleaguered, yet inventive, planner of heists. After doing the leg work on a stick-up opportunity, he "sells" his plans to the criminal buyers. After a heist goes sour, Vaughn's character must go into hiding, and he is forced to "kidnap" his daughter, in order to protect her from the two principal villains--a drug lord and a crooked cop.The film becomes engaging when the daughter begins to "learn the ropes" of the business of crime, and, above all, the mindset of the criminal. The young woman is a fast study, and the actress playing the daughter, Hailee Steinfeld, steals the show.The best scene in the film was the moment when the father and daughter are at a fair, and the dad intercedes when a woman and her child are cheated out of a prize. He violates one of his cardinal rules as a criminal by making himself so conspicuous that bystanders may remember him. One of those bystanders is a cop, who is played by Terrence Howard. Of course, the cop will later remember the face of the kind man at the fair. This well-crafted scene pays dividends in the development of Vaughn's character as a criminal who has a heart.Overall, "Term Life" was not a great film. But it included a fine set of character actors, brisk pacing by the director, and an excellent dose of sheer entertainment.

Have a bit of a hard time wrapping around my feelings about this movie, while it is nice to see Vince Vaughn in something different; I'm not 100% sure I buy it.He's not bad but I'm not sure that this will be his new 'thing' exactly, even though I suppose he's a notch above the current state of Bruce Willis and Nic Cage for instance (who would feel a bit more typical choices to lead this kind of movie). As far as the plot goes it's perfectly acceptable for a direct to DVD type of action-thriller but not much more than that, the plot involves a fairly typical scenario; criminal father trying to re-connect with an estranged daughter and getting her caught up in danger in the process.Hailee Steinfeld plays the daughter in this case and she's played a role like that before, in the Kevin Costner driven flick '3 Days To Kill', I prefer this slightly though I think.One thing that lead me to want to see this movie was the fact that Jon Favreau's name was attached to it (Vince and Jon have of course had a long history of working together so I thought it would be fun to see them together again) but he's only in it for like 7 minutes.No the main focus is of course Vaughn and Steinfeld the other players come and go, for instance Taraji P Henson and Annabeth Gish only got one scene each in it.So yeah all and all even though it's nothing that will make you go wow and the thing that stands out the most is Vince Vaughn (and his terrible hair-do) it's still acceptable entertainment if you don't ask for anything more than that.

"Everything I've done has been for you. The running, the hiding, all of it has been for you." Nick Barrow (Vaughn) is a heist planner. After one goes bad Nick is trying to figure out why. The more he investigates the more he realizes his life is in danger. When his daughter Cate (Steinfeld) shows up Nick not only has to find a way to clear his name and save his own life, but Cate's as well. I am a big Vince Vaughn fan, I think he is hilarious and is always fun to watch…in comedies. This isn't a bad movie at all and is very much worth seeing but I think it could have been a little better. The biggest problem with this is that it was just a little predictable for the movie to have any real impact. That said though, again, I did like this and was entertained by it the entire time. Overall, if you are looking for the next Vince Vaughn classic this is not it, but this is still a decent movie to watch and isn't a waste of time at all. I give this a B-.