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If you've heard of Australian director Geoffrey Wright, that's probably via 1993 cult hit Romper Stomper; the movie that gave the world Russel Crowe. Now Wright is back, with a version of Shakespeare's Macbeth set in the Melbourne ganglands. Aussie rising star Sam Worthington stars as the ambitious, tortured Macbeth, who is drawn into a world of darkness when he kills his gang boss Duncan (Gary Sweet). Trouble is, this adaptation is slipshod, and obsessed by surface.

We join our long-haired, chisel-jawed Macbeth amid his gangster buddies, just after a vicious hit on a rival gang. When three teenage nymphets - the witches from Shakespeare's original - tell him that one day he will be top dog, Macbeth is perplexed, but, encouraged by Lady Macbeth (stand out cast member Victoria Hill), he begins a murder spree, encompassing Duncan and former allies Banquo ( Steve Bastoni) and Macduff (Lachy Hume). So far, so GCSE English. But while Wright stays true to Shakespeare's plot, it's all delivered via a mix of machine gun fire, nightclubs, and sex.

"A TACKY MIX OF NEON LIGHTS AND BARE SKIN"

This ultra-contemporary Macbeth, then, naturally draws comparison with Baz Luhrmann's similar treatment of Romeo and Juliet. Unfortunately, it falls well short. Visually, this movie is a tacky mix of neon lights and bare skin, and at 115 minutes we rattle through the story too fast to feel the gravitas, or grit, so ingrained in the original. Most important, Wright's actors struggle to bring life to Shakespeare's language, meaning we never forget the incongruous fact that these 21st-century gangsters are speaking 16th-century English. The result, despite all the carnage, is a pale, bloodless adaptation.

Macbeth is out in the UK on 13th July 2007.