The Rolling Stones -- together still, rather than again -- are together with director Martin Scorsese for the first time in "Shine a Light."

Filmed over two days at the relatively intimate Beacon Theater in New York City, the concert doc was born out of the legendary band's "Big Bang" tour, which spectacle hit PNC Park two summers ago.

In film form, its prelude consists of the usual backstage hubbub, highlighted by the sudden incongruous appearance of Bill and Hillary Clinton -- with Mrs. Rodham, Hill's mom, in tow. The ex-prez, mercifully refraining from getting out his sax, then introduces the Stones.

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"Shine a Light"

3 1/2 stars = Very good
Ratings explained

• Starring: The Rolling Stones
• Rating: PG-13 for brief strong language, drug references and smoking (re-edited from R for language).
• Web site: shinealightmovie.com

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Opening musical sally is "Jumpin' Jack Flash" at its best, followed by "Shattered" and "She Was Hot" -- all demonstrating the skillful ability of Scorsese's mobile camera crew to keep up with Mick Jagger.

No mean feat. Indefatigable at 63, Jagger scampers frenetically back and forth across the stage, from left to right runways, giving equal time to all sides and leaving no fan un-Stoned.

This is the best dancer (with the best hair) in rock history, his movement and his incredibly slim body seeming not to have aged a bit -- in contrast to the wan, heavily lined face. In one classic after another -- "Some Girls" and "Just My Imagination" most notably -- Jagger works his magic by actually acting out instead of phoning in the lyrics, making them fresh every time.

Like all Stones shows, this one is All Mick Not-All-But-Most of the Time.

Keith Richards, looking like an ancient medicine-show Indian or Johnny Depp in funhouse-mirror distortion, is still so fabulously, politically incorrect that he not only smokes on stage but spits out the butt. His "You Got the Silver" solo gives us his lovely, softer side.

Every song gives us Charlie Watts' and Ronnie Wood's softer sides (the latter's slide-western guitar sound on "Girl With the Faraway Eyes" is a highlight).

Scorsese watched the Stones rehearse for many days in order to choreograph his 16 cameras. He and seminal Stones chronicler Albert Maysles ("Gimme Shelter") marvelously match the images to the music and musicians without that senselessly peripatetic MTV-video feel.

No 3-D thrills here, cheap or otherwise. Just 35mm blown up to IMAX proportions. You have to move your head as well as your eyes to grasp and savor each new shot in full.

Unlike Scorsese's "The Last Waltz" (1978) -- that terrific concert-rendering of Robbie Robertson and The Band -- this one is no great enduring portrait of an era. But it contains a few nifty clips from ancient Stones interviews.

"Can you imagine doing this when you're 60?" asks Dick Cavett in 1972.

"Oh, yeah, easily," Mick replies.

We could've used more Mick-Keith backstage, more of what it took to mesh the Stones' ideas on the film with Scorsese's.

Consolation prize for that is a series of fine surprise duets by Jagger with White Stripes' Jack White III, our own Christina Aguilera and Buddy Guy -- the last on an immortal old Muddy Waters song, "Champagne and Reefer."

"Shine a Light" is pretty much strictly a concert film, coming in at exactly two hours. As such, it captures the band's astoundingly raw energy, musicianship and audience rapport. Best of all, we see how their original bad-boy personas have evolved into semi-send-ups of their former selves.

Bad boys no more. Just sweet old senior-citizen reprobates, much beloved of their billion kids and grandkids.