IF, LIKE me, you were glued to the BBC's Strictly Come Dancing and can't wait for the next series, then I reckon this is the film to provide the interim hit of sequins, sashays and salsa.

On the surface Shall We Dance? looks like it has everything you should avoid like the plague.

It's a remake of a 1996 Japanese hit called - not so differently - Shall We Dansu?

This time around, director Peter Chelsom - whose previous credits include Serendipity - puts an American spin onto the whole movie, and has a cast reasonably matched with each other.

Richard Gere plays John Clark, a weary Chicago lawyer who specialises in wills, dividing up the spoils of a lifetime between grieving families.

On the surface his life seems great - successful wife Bev, played by Susan Sarandon, two kids and a house in the suburbs - but his days are monotonous, the evenings spent alone while supermum attends meeting after meeting.

On one of his many journeys home, he spots a figure in the window - a moody, pouting beauty staring straight at him... enter Jennifer Lopez as troubled dancing queen, Paulina.

His fascination with the sad, but slightly irratating, Paulina leads Mr Clark to stumble in on a dancing school down on its luck and with the owner, its main teacher, a part-time alcoholic.

The film is full of classic comedy moments, mainly created by the funny dance scenes and the main characters' interaction with each other - and a few will actually make you laugh out loud.

Of course, as many men careering towards a mid-life crisis could identify with, there's a slight indication that, if given the chance, Mr Clark would be having an affair faster than he could quickstep.

Lopez's role is very much in the background. It left you feeling that if it was taken out, the film would not have been any the worse for wear.

In fact, in a number of scenes she's upstaged by a huge, black guy strutting his stuff in gold lam.

Toe-tapping Gere plays an inept learner dancer with comparitive ease - after all, we'd already seen his skills as Billy Flynn in Chicago.

The final dance-off competition is full of fast-flowing dresses, flashes of fake tan and bitching between competitors that Julian Clary would have been proud of.

Okay, the film is predictable and schmaltzy, but I actually found myself loving it.

If you're the sort that wants to see an artistic masterpiece, and wishes to be led on a magical, mystery tour of the movie underworld, then give this a miss - but I think you knew that already.

Gere had - and still has - effortless charm that the older ladies love.

Judging by the average age of the audience, they still do.

In fact, the whole shebang has almost made me want to get out my dancing shoes, don a frilly skirt and find an obliging partner. I said, almost.