Nicky thinks he's just an ordinary guy who likes to play heavy metal in his room at home and spend time with his father.

Nicky is simply not evil enough and he finds it hard to compete with his bad-to-the-bone brothers, Adrian and Cassius (Ifans & Lister), when they have to decide who will take over their father's throne.

Their father, the devil, decides to postpone his retirement and the two competitive and ambitious brothers conspire to set up a new home.

Subsequently New York City becomes Hell on Earth.

When his two brothers defect to Earth, Nicky must bring them back to hell before their father falls apart - literally.

Nicky is terrified of his trip to Earth, as he's never even stayed over at "some other dude's house" but plucks up the courage for his father's sake.

As the two evil brothers terrorise Manhattan, Nicky befriends a bulldog that teaches him the rules of living on Earth and eventually helps him to move in with an unsuspecting flatmate.

Nicky can sense this will be a difficult task - the city has millions of people - his brothers could be anywhere!

The most human experience that Nicky encounters is falling in love.

He meets Valerie (Arquette) and begins to experience good emotions - in fact too good to ever allow him to re-enter Hell again.

But all is explained when he discovers that his real mother is indeed an angel from heaven and not the mountain goat with halitosis he always believed her to be.

The baddies are so stereotypically evil but were cast so creatively that every scene Lister, Ifans and Keitel take part in simply sparkles.

The goodies have also been brilliantly cast.

Arquette and Witherspoon are both covincingly angelic and Adam Sandler steals the show as the naïve and powerless little Devil.

As juvenile as most of his jokes are, there are moments that recall the more surreal bits from his Saturday Night Live days and will crack up an audience who are there to see Sandler at his best.

There is even a cameo appearance by Henry Winkler who becomes a victim of the devil.

Quentin Tarantino also appears as a bible-thumping street preacher, and the inimitable Clint Howard plays a pervert who spies on women from trees.

The script is one that Sandler co-wrote and it never belies his highly intelligent wit.

Natalie Stone