MALE chauvinist husbands of the world, be afraid - be very afraid!

Hide all the newspapers, turn off all the TVs and don't let your wife/girlfriend's best friend persuade her to have a girlie night out at the flicks - or be prepared to suffer the consequences.

Any downtrodden dear out there who goes watching THE FIRST WIVES CLUB showing from today, Friday, at UCI Cinemas, Westbrook, I reckon there's a good chance your doormat days are over.

Goldie Hawn, still a babe at 50, Bette Midler and Diane Keaton play, well to put it nicely, women of a more mature age.

Women who no longer possess the looks and figures that they had 15 or 20 years ago - not through any fault of their own, you understand, but thanks to old Mother Nature, they're not quite the nubile young things they once were.

So, after years of holding their husbands' hands while they nurtured their business successes and put their kids through puberty and school, what happens?

Is it, 'I'll take you for a cruise around the world, darling?' Or, 'Here's that house with a swimming pool you've always dreamed of?'

No! It's take your wrinkles and get out while I replace you with a bit of young tottie to massage my ageing ego and massage something else into the bargain!

After creeping off into their respective little corners to lick their wounds and feel sorry for themselves, these one time best buddies are reunited to find they all have one thing in common - each married a complete toad.

As revenge is a dish best served cold, the three women team up to turn their former spouses into Eskimos with hilarious results.

It's a bit cheesy in spells and I think some of the more obvious visual humour won't go down very well with an English audience but it makes compulsive viewing for any hard done to women out there who feel like a good old chuckle at the expense of the male population - particularly any ex-partners who had the gall to leave them for a younger woman.

Verdict: 7/10: A jolly good laugh but leave hubby at home, girls.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.