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SCMP Reporter

The greatest surprise in the movie True Romance was that Dennis Hopper played neither mobster nor psycho.

 As Christian Slater's father, he was the most normal character on screen - even if he did meet a grisly death.

 It's a surprise simply because, perhaps more than any other actor, Hopper has made a career out of portraying the 'Middle-American menace'.

 During the 1950s, he appeared in two of James Dean's movies (Rebel Without a Cause and Giant) and went on to land supporting roles in other movies, but it didn't take long before he was labelled 'difficult'.

 He appeared in Roger Corman's 1967 acid exploration The Trip (written by Jack Nicholson) and then came his greatest triumph, Easy Rider, the definitive counter-culture movie which Hopper co-wrote, directed and starred in (and which made a star of Nicholson).

 In the 70s his talents were sadly under-utilised, not simply because of his bad reputation but due to the fact that, by his own admission, he spent much of the decade in a haze of drink and drugs.

 After cleaning himself up in the early 80s, he made a big-screen comeback in David Lynch's Blue Velvet; indeed, his kinky sadist was a tour de force.

 Unsurprisingly, Hopper's character in the based-on-fact, made-for-cable movie Doublecrossed (Pearl, 9.30pm) - drug smuggler Barry Seal - remains true to form.

 He stars as the thrill-seeking Louisiana-bred Seal, a family man with a pretty wife (Adrienne Barbeau), three children and a job he enjoys as a pilot with a thriving marijuana transport business. Hauling his illegal cargo under the nose of the lawmen who want to put him behind bars is a game Seal enjoys.

 When he meets a fellow pilot and smuggler (G. W Bailey), they form a partnership, up the stakes and enter the cocaine trade.

 But in 1983 Seal is arrested in a government sting and, in a bid for a lighter sentence, persuades the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency he should work for it to expose the Colombian cartel.

 Despite many dangerous missions, when Seal comes to trial the DEA is nowhere to be seen.

 It's a tight drama that raises many questions but, inevitably, fails to provide any answers.

 Performances all round are convincing; Robert Carradine co-stars.

Global Family (World, 6.30pm) takes a look at the osprey, sentinel of the Great Lakes.

 In 1989, the Canadian Wildlife Service sponsored a Scottish scientist, Dr Peter Ewins, to examine the few remaining ospreys in Georgian Bay to find out why they were disappearing.

 Early use of the pesticide DDT was known to have contributed to eggshell failure, but DDT was no longer a threat by the late 80s. The Georgian Bay Osprey Society, a citizens' conservation group, had been working for years to restore the nesting habitat for this remarkable fish hawk.

 The efforts of the society and the research of Dr Ewins make a sharp commentary on how the survival of the osprey - and of many other creatures - is so dependent on man.

The human skin under examination in this week's Model (World, 8.pm) is Mark Vanderloo.

 Whereas Markus Skenkenburg is arguably the most recognisable body in male modelling, Vanderloo's is the most recognisable face.

 He's been featured in countless campaigns including those for Donna Karan, Hugo Boss and Versace.

 E! follows him for 48 hours in Paris, from backstage at the shows to a mishap on the freeway.

 But, if the craziness of men's fashion week is not enough to turn you on, a stroll along the Left Bank should be.

It's a rare day indeed when ATV World outsmarts TVB Pearl, but when it comes to the daily 'countdown' bulletins aired on each channel Handover Spotlight (World, 8.30pm) makes Countdown Memo (Pearl, 9.25pm) look as if it had been made by a group of secondary-school children.

 The former tackles serious issues, such as the future freedom of the press and fate of legislators, examining them briefly but in depth.

 The latter, too frequently introduced by the witless Geoff Wong, are as informative as the one-minute Hong Kong Wonders Never Cease.



Hopper's easy pilot