Suspended over a deep gully of disbelief, where logic takes on more bullets than the bad guys, Shooter still makes the grade as hard-ass action escapism. Props to Mark Wahlberg, an actor whose fierce gaze and sneaky humor can carry a movie over the rockiest terrain. Even one that plays like a shotgun marriage between The Fugitive and The Bourne Identity. Wahlberg, who finally got that Oscar nomination (for The Departed) that he also deserved for Boogie Nights and I Heart Huckabees, plays Bob Lee Swagger (great name), a former Marine scout sniper. Emotionally wounded by the death of his partner on a failed mission in Africa, Swagger takes off with his dog to a mountaintop ranch (strikingly shot in British Columbia). It's a visit from retired Col. Isaac Johnson (a glowering Danny Glover) that gets Swagger back in the game when the colonel plays the patriotism card. There's a plot to kill the president, and the colonel needs Swagger to predict how it will happen before it happens so he can stop it. In less time than it takes to say "patsy," Swagger is on the run as the most hunted man in America.

Based on the 1993 novel Point of Impact, by Washington Post film critic Stephen Hunter, who used Swagger in two other books, Shooter benefits from having Training Day director Antoine Fuqua to deflect plot deficiencies with firepower. And the plucky cast is ready for every curve the film throws. Michael Pe–a (Crash, World Trade Center) plays Nick Memphis (another nifty name), the FBI rookie who learns to side with Swagger and cowboy the fuck up. Kate Mara (We Are Marshall) goes beyond the call of eye candy as the widow who comforts our boy. Still, it's the villains played by Glover, Elias Koteas and Rade Sherbedgia who get the most out of the movie by diving off the deep end along with the script, by Jonathan Lemkin (Lethal Weapon 4). Any actor knows it's hog heaven to ham it up as a crook, and Ned Beatty sucks the meat from the bone as a corrupt senator.

Fuqua wants to evoke classic 1970s conspiracy thrillers such as Three Days of the Condor and The Parallax View, but Shooter falls way below that paygrade. Once this movie starts to take its paranoia seriously, the bogus gravity stalls the suspense and spoils the fun. The juice comes in scenes when Swagger goes ape-shit and no one can cool his blood lust. "You don't understand!" he shouts when choosing violence as the only option. "Those guys killed my dog!" Face it: Brawn trumps brains anytime when you're looking for guy-movie nirvana.