HOPKINS BATTLES BEAR, BALDWIN IN FROSTY WORLD OF `THE EDGE'.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

In ``The Edge,'' Anthony Hopkins plays the latest in a bewildering line of heroic movie billionaires. Like Mel Gibson in ``Ransom'' and Michael Douglas in ``The Game,'' Hopkins' Charles Morse is the man you want to handle a life-threatening crisis, in this case to lead you out of the remote Alaskan wilderness when your plane crashes into a lake.

Good thing he's as resourceful and resilient as he is rich.

A gripping, if not too believable men-against-nature survival story with a less than convincing male competition thing going on, ``The Edge'' operates on the premise that knowledge will get you past a primal jam more efficiently than brute force will. It's written by David Mamet, whose plays (``Glengarry Glen Ross,'' ``Speed-the-Plow'') tend to be much more rigorous parables about outthinking one's opponents.

But then, the plays don't have bears. Morse and his rival for his gorgeous, supermodel wife (played by gorgeous supermodel Elle Macpherson) are chased over miles of rugged, mountainous terrain by a man-hungry Kodiak. The rival is fashion photographer Robert Green (Alec Baldwin), as hunky and hot-tempered as Morse is bookish and withdrawn - and who may or may not be planning to kill the older man once he doesn't need him to get out of the woods anymore.

But there's no question about the bear's intentions. Played by Bart, who was much cuddlier as the bear in ``The Bear,'' he appears more than eager to work out some business with Hopkins left over from ``Legends of the Fall.''

Morse drags Green into increasing Outward Bound-dementia as the threat from the big mammal increases (a third crash survivor, portrayed by Harold Perrineau, is the designated expendable African-American). But you see, Morse has a photographic memory, so he knows exactly how two half-frozen guys who've been trekking over mountains for days with no food and can overcome an 800-pound predator.

The bear stuff is terrifically filmed. Director Lee Tamahori has a great feel for violent spectacle; the animal conflict here has the same kind of visceral impact that Tamahori's New Zealand movie ``Once Were Warriors'' had, only in a wild rather than deceptively domestic context.

But when it's not operating in Ursa Major, ``The Edge's'' pleasures are minor key: the aptly named cinematographer Donald L. McAlpine's beautiful mountain vistas; the occasionally droll Mamet put-down of oddball Morse's know-it-all-ness; and some recognition that the straightforward struggle for survival in the wild might be preferable to the hidden betrayals of cushy civilization.

There is something arbitrary and hollow about the course of ``The Edge's'' central male conflict, although Morse handles that situation with an admirable balance of cleverness and compassion. In fact, the point of the whole thing seems to be that this guy is simply a prince among men, money or no money.

By the way, the studio that's releasing ``The Edge,'' 20th Century Fox, is owned by Rupert Murdoch.

THE FACTS

The film: ``The Edge'' (R; violence, language).

The stars: Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin, Elle Macpherson, Harold Perrineau.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Lee Tamahori. Written by David Mamet. Produced by Art Linson. Released by 20th Century Fox.

Running time: Two hours, one minute.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two and One Half Stars.

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Photo

Photo: A fashion photographer (Alec Baldwin, left) and a bookish billionaire (Anthony Hopkins) battle a Kodiak bear - and each other - in ``The Edge.''