Term Life (2016)

A very surprising movie. With a father/daughter rocky relationship at the heart of the movie and a great cast of actors that must have done this because they like each other and not the money. Low budget but well used scenery and sets. I am not a Vince Vaughn fan so I was surprised that I liked him in the role. But it was Hailee Steinfeld that steals every scene she is in. Which is saying something with a cast that includes Bill Paxton, Jon Favreau the great character actor Jonathan Banks as the crusty friend/mentor to Vaughn. Even the dynamic duo from Empire,Taraji P Henson and Terrence Howard have some fun. This movie is more formula then substance but it is very entertaining. I think that Term Life has more life in it than some of the other reviews say it has. I hope you will try this movie out. Hopefully you will be surprised too.

Fmovies: It was the plot synopsis that caught my attention, and the impressive cast that convinced me to try it. I am very glad that I did, because this movie is a pleasure to watch. I have never particularly liked Vince Vaughn, for me his comedic characters have always fallen flat. I certainly wouldn't have pegged him as right for a lead role in a movie like this, but then I not only underestimated Vaughn as an actor, but I underestimated what this movie was going to be. The synopsis paints this as a serious thriller, something fast-paced, tense, action-packed. It is these things, at the right moments, but at other moments it is a father and daughter bonding in charming and unexpected ways.

I just watched the trailer to see how well it represents the movie, and I have to say it is poorly cut and doesn't do the movie justice at all. For one, the trailer, and the synopsis for the movie, give the impression that this is a straight-to-DVD, cliché-ridden, B-List ensemble cast movie that will, most likely, disappoint, but at best mildly entertain.

What I took away from the movie is that more movies ought to be like this one. It is clever, insightful, character-driven, tense when appropriate, charming and witty. It takes actors who are always type-cast in similar roles, then gives the character an unexpected twist to add dimensionality. The movie is full of lessons to be taken away by the audience and likable characters that a viewer can invest in, which makes it feel like a movie from a bygone era when measured against so many vapid, effects-ridden action movies with one-dimensional characters.

At first, Vaughn's narration seemed cheesy and, like so many aspects of this movie, something that, at first glance, seems contrived and typical of a terrible TV movie, but, also like everything in this movie, it quickly grows on you, and you find yourself missing his voice-over whenever it goes silent for a few minutes.

I enjoyed the movie and I hope to see more like it, from the director, the writer and the cast, who all did a magnificent job.

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.

Term Life fmovies. 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.

"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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Wow. Just wow. How do big name actors get involved in b-movie fare like this? Usually it is money. I don't know the reason for their getting involved in this movie's failure, if it was money then I have to wonder why they hired an inexperienced writer for the screenplay? Because that is the main fault of this movie. The screenplay is based on a graphic novel and I have to imagine the comic book is nowhere near as unbelievable as this hack screenplay. Because the story in the movie relies on supposed smart people doing things they wouldn't do but do them because apparently because the writer couldn't come up with anything better to get where he wanted to go.

Take for example the desire to create tension to heighten the emotion of the viewers. You can either make the characters act true to normal human behavior or you could have them all of sudden make insane decisions because you are too incompetent of a writer to get where you want to go by making a more complex story, so you have characters all of sudden do foolish things that make no sense for those characters. For example let's say the characters are supposed to be not insane and not dumber then a 3 year old, to then all of sudden have them act as if they are. in order to get them in certain situations - is the laziest type of hack writing. The total reliance on these gimmicky hack writing situations makes people lose interest - because you can't accept it as real people - you think "this is just a stupid movie written by hack." Add to that the unimaginative and lackluster "cinematography" and you end up with a movie that is dumb, unattractive,acted like it was written in a couple days by a drunk, and shot in a week at most. A waste of time for everyone involved, this is a very amateur production with big name stars - which maybe is the fault of Hollywood insiders doing friends a favor and hiring talent behind the camera to go along with talent in front. Or maybe they ran out of money after hiring all the big name stars and had nothing left for people who know how to write, direct, and shoot a movie that is higher quality then the worst episode of CSI. An up and coming A-lister like Hailee Steinfeld needs to find new representation if she is too busy to read scripts and relies on them to find her projects above this level of junk. This is something you expect to see from washed up actors or no-names, not A-listers. This is not bad enough to be seen as entertaining because of it's ridiculousness, it is simply bland and dumb.