PROJECT GRIZZLY

PROJECT GRIZZLY (1998, First Run Features, unrated, $29.95) Troy Hurtubise is a man obsessed. Ever since his 1984 meeting with a grizzly in British Columbia (which left him, inexplicably, unhurt), the Ontario scrap-metal dealer has devoted himself to ''close-quarter bear research.'' Director Peter Lynch's entertaining film follows Hurtubise as he tests his 7'2'', 147-pound, $150,000 titanium-and-rubber encounter suit (inspired, he says, by RoboCop). Lurching around like an arthritic robot, the real-life action hero gets rammed by a tree trunk, walks through fire, and undergoes a beating by three big men with bats. Too bad the lack of mobility poses a problem when he actually tracks a bear in the Canadian Rockies. Through it all, however, Hurtubise demonstrates good-humored macho and fascination with his ursine quarry. A