The fourth collaboration between director Peter Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg may be their “worst,” but still provides plenty of hard-nosed entertainment.

The heir apparent to the late Tony Scott, Berg builds on the success of Patriots Day and Deepwater Horizon, once more dazzling viewers through elaborate, well-planned set pieces that bounce between a variety of visual sources with sustained suspense.

Absent, however, is the fact-based intrigue and relatable, investment-worthy humans that raise the emotional stakes of those movies and the second-tier Lone Survivor. In their place is Wahlberg in unnecessarily and ill-fitting oversized character mode, playing a savant U.S. intelligence officer leading a special-ops team the titular distance through a Southeast Asian city to bring home an assassination-target asset (Iko Uwais, The Raid).

Come for the violent shootouts and Uwais’ hand-to-hand combat skills, stay for John Malkovich's pseudo flat-top haircut.

Grade: B-minus. Rated: R. Now playing at AMC Classic, Biltmore Grande and Carolina Cinemark

(Photo: STX Entertainment)