Term Life

"You're a thief, right? That's what mom said. You steal stuff, right? Yeah. You must really suck at it."

"Term life" is such a kind of movie that makes me think deeply the next day, just because I can't remember the title anymore. Let alone I remember anything significant content wise. At first I didn't even feel like watching this comical crime film, due to the presence of Vince Vaughn. He isn't exactly my favorite actor. Lets say he already got on my nerves in "The internship" and "Wedding Crashers". But ultimately I must admit that his presence was quite bearable in this film. He really doesn't look like a criminal and I was afraid he would come up with something semi-comic (which wouldn't be funny anyway). But fortunately this wasn't the case. There are also some well-known actors present, even though their roles are meaningless after all.

Nick Barrow (Vince Vaughn) isn't what you'd call an active criminal, but rather a criminal standing at the sidelines. He constructs robberies and burglaries. In short, he observes the target, makes the planning (complete with electrical schematics, codes and timing) and sells it to the highest bidder. After a robbery ends badly with the participating criminals being eliminated and the loot totally gone, it's time for Nick to make his escape as quickly as possible. One of the dead criminals appears to be the son of Victor Fuentes (Jordi Molla), the big chief of a Mexican drug cartel. Add to this a gang of corrupt cops and you understand that Nick is actually in big trouble. The only one he's worried about the most, is his daughter. He hasn't talked to her for years now and only has a collection of photos in a shoe-box which he made secretly. A new life insurance is his solution. His only concern is to stay alive the next three weeks in the company of his rebellious daughter.

As mentioned before, a whole bunch of famous actors joined this "overgrown by genres" film. You'll see Jon "Chef" Favreau for about 3 minutes. Jonathan "Breaking Bad" Banks plays one of the most interesting parts. A kind of sidelined criminal who's so good-natured to help Nick and to provide some inside information. If there's one person who has the most funny dialogue lines, then it's him. The most successful rendition is played by Bill Paxton. A perfect portrait of a corrupt cop who's doing everything to prevent that he's being condemned by the "Internal affairs". Even if this is detrimental to his partners in crime

"Term Life" is simply a typical action movie with some forced comedy. And finally they've mixed it with a cheesy family drama. The type of family film about a father-daughter relationship that went wrong. In the beginning the teenage daughter is always p*ssed at the ever-absent father. So expect some embarrassing moments for Nick who tries to pick up the pieces as a responsible and caring father. The final outcome is as predictable as the fact that Easter Monday will be this year on a Monday. This insignificant movie suffocated itself with the hodgepodge of genres. I guess they weren't really fully aware of which direction they finally wanted to go. And it's really not a good sign when a ridiculous hairdo draws the most attention of movie lovers.

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You really don't think Vince Vaughn when you think of action movies, even though he's a big solid guy. What makes it work is the fact that the movie is really about a dad trying to bond with his astray daughter

Vaughn plays a crook who is framed by crooked cops for killing a real bad guy's son, and he has to protect his daughter from the really bad guy looking to do an eye for an eye type thing.

Vince Vaughn and Hailee Steinfeld are a great pair on the screen as two strangers who are learning to become father and daughter. Lots of chucks of the movie deal with that and it was quite good.

The movie is filled with lots of familiar faces in small roles, like Empire's, Terrance Howard and Taraji P. Henson, Bill Paxton and Mike Epps. Although it does not make the movie all that better.

Overall, despite the action crime drama elements, and his bad hair cut, it's a Vince Vaughn movie. If you like Vince you'll like the movie despite the fact that he's trying something different with the role.

At some point of action stars' life, they are bound to have adventure with their estranged daughters, just like Liam Neeson or Kevin Costner did. Those expecting a level of action production for action blockbuster might be disappointed, but the saving grace comes in unexpected engaging drama and an adequate crime thriller.

Nick (Vince Vaughn) is a planner for heist, he scouts the place, sets up escape routes, then sells the whole gig to another party. His recent buyer is caught up dead and now mobster and police are chasing Nick, who immediately grabs his daughter before making a run for it. This may seem like ordinary scheme, however it creates several chances, which unfortunately only a handful of them bear fruit.

The action is not great, one can see from the first brawl that the choreography is tedious. It's definitely not the caliber of high pace fisticuffs or intense shootout. In fact, any fighting seems a bit underwhelming and might even be detrimental to thriller aspect the movie is setting up for.

Surprisingly, the drama holds up nicely, especially the father-daughter bond between Vince Vaughn and Hailee Steinfeld. They have good chemistry and it shows a progression of their characters. Its mystery thriller works as well, while it's not complicated it is a decent crime story. Furthermore, there are some veteran actors here like Bill Paxton and Terrence Howard to name a few.

This star-studded movie is sadly lacking in action, although drama and cast do admirable job on giving it a lifeline.

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.

I'm really surprised about the mostly negative reviews about this movie.

I am a fan of Vince Vaughan but this was different from his usual comedy roles. There was some light hearted humour in this movie but certainly wouldn't categorize it as a comedy.

I found the film a little different entirely from most films and would probably categorize it as an action movie.

Anyway I thought Vince Vaughan played the part very well as a very methodical and clinical person who suddenly needs to protect his estranged daughter. I'm probably a little biased as I love Vince Vaughan's dry almost sarcastic sense of humour which still comes through in this part he plays.

The story was interesting and fresh with a few twists here and there. I kept my focus on the movie which is rare these days as I quite often drift off into oblivion especially the bad movies.

I thought the acting was good and Vince Vaughan kept his main character alive and interesting. I thought it proved that Vince can play other roles,so well done! Vince.

The ending was predictable but hell what film isn't there the best ones. So just enjoy the ride.