RIGHT, let's clear this up straight away... Chicago is not, repeat not, a jazz age Moulin Rouge.

First-time director Rob Marshall has taken a well-worn, much-loved and (most importantly) recently revived stage hit and filmed it. End of story. Baz Luhrmann, on the other hand, took the tired movie musical genre back out on the town, loaded it with alcopops and showed it a damned good time.

That said, Chicago hasn't remained a staple of the theatrical repertoire these past 25 years for nothing. Its score is laced with a full compliment of showstoppers (Mr Cellophane, All I Care About Is Love, All That Jazz) and the libretto is pure daggers-drawn melodrama.

Showgirl Velma Kelley (Catherine Zeta-Jones) can do no wrong as she wows 1920s Chicago nightlife with a sizzling sister act. But when she catches sis with her hubbie practising the show's raunchy positions, she shoots her sibling and winds up in jail awaiting trail for her life.

Also behind bars is blonde wannabe Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) who shot her lover when he failed to get her name in lights. Both ladies know the only way to escape the hangman's rope is to secure the services of flamboyant attorney Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) who has never lost a case defending a female.

The pair compete for his affections and Roxie must use all the tricks in the book to hold onto Flynn when Go To Hell Kitty (Lucy Liu) is brought in on a triple murder rap. But hold on she does and the stage is set for a dazzling courtroom showdown followed by an unlikely finale.

Gere looks right at home with the material - remember he was 'discovered' on the West End stage playing the lead in Grease - and Zeta-Jones' showy, spirited performance draws on all her pre-fame stage experience. The weakest link is Zellweger who manages to stifle Roxie's sexiness with a heavy-handed little-girl-lost routine that really doesn't serve the story well.

Neither does Marshall's insistence on rapid-fire cutting and big close-ups that suffocate the scale of the production, although his reserved attempt to blend fantasy and reality worlds adds much needed texture to the film.

But Chicago is a rattling good show and this fan-pleasing film sticks close enough to the source material to win over newcomers.

NC