10 Minutes Gone 2019 * * 1/2 Stars

Director: Brian A. Miller
Year: 2019
Rated R
Rating: * * 1/2 Stars
Cast: Michael Chiklis, Bruce Willis, Meadow Williams

10 Minutes Gone is my latest review. It was released in late September and I'm thinking it was an Internet only affair. That's what you'll get from director, nutrition-less action helmer, and monumental slick-ster, Brian A. Miller.

So OK, "Gone" has empty, streamlined shootouts where no one really hits a target. And yes, the dialogue feels word for word with the script supervisor obviously not changing a thing. Still, Brian A. Miller as a filmmaker seems to be growing a little. His flick has a twist I didn't see coming and his plot is a little more intricate than in past efforts. "Miller time" isn't so bad (unfortunately compared to Miller's The Prince/Vice, that ain't saying much).

10 Minutes Gone contains lots of hailed gunfire, some constant Michael Bay camera movements, numerous flashbacks, a character walking away from an explosion in slow-motion (never seen that before), and a wooden performance from Bruce Willis that shows he didn't have to move five feet within the first hour (did Brucie even know where his mark was?).

In truth, if you like a digestible heist thriller with some raw (effective) acting from The Shield's Michael Chiklis, then "Gone" is gonna do it for you. And if you like obsessive aerial shots of Cincinnati, Ohio ("Gone's" go-to locale), then 10 Minutes Gone will sort of make you wanna visit "The Nati" (I stress the words "sort of").

Using a movie poster that screams direct-to-video and distributed by four production companies (Lionsgate occupying two of them), "Gone" involves a bank robbery gone afoul with the protagonist robber getting hit over the head (he loses consciousness for ten minutes, hint hint). When said protagonist wakes up, he has to figure out who double-crossed him.

Bottom line: 10 Minutes Gone isn't hot garbage but it gives us another reason to believe Brian A. Miller's work will never hit an actual movie theater. He's stuck in one, gun-toting genre with his Bruce Willis muse, his counterspy app-ed film scores, and his novice choices for actors (Michael Chiklis excluded). Yup, 10 Minutes Gone is "reservoir dogged". It has "gone" to the place of a mixed review. Rating: 2 and a half stars.

Written by Jesse Burleson