Term Life

This is your bog standard 'criminal is framed and tries to clear his name' type flick, which is entertaining but never elevates itself beyond throwaway entertainment. It has a decent cast of, well, not exactly "big stars", but actors that people will know, including Vince Vaughn, Hailee Steinfeld, Terence Howard, Taraji P. Henson, Bill Paxton, Jon Favreau, and chronically typecast Jordi Mollà as a, you guessed it, a villain! The story works for the most part, if a little shallow, but the father-daughter narrative never has any punch. Vaughn manages to pull off the role, just, though I still think the role should have gone to a more streetwise actor such as Mark Wahlberg(unfortunately Billingsley has not previously worked with him so couldn't pull in a favour!), but his hair isn't as distracting as you might think so that's a plus. Jonathan Banks has a small role but basically just reprises his role as Mike Ehrmantraut.

C+