Ghost Rider (Mark Steven Johnson) Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Sam Elliott, Peter Fonda, Wes Bentley Running time: 110 mins . . .

IT'S a mistake to lump Ghost Rider with Superman and Spider Man and all the other Good versus Evil comic-book morality tales. Ghost Rider is Faust, not Christ the Saviour. Nicolas Cage's recycled Marvel stunt motorcyclist - a sort of Evel Knievel daredevil - is less superhero than antihero. As a youth he sells his soul to the Devil, although in mitigation he doesn't do it for fame or riches but unselfishly to cure his terminally ill dad's cancer. Not only that, the Devil, or rather Mephistopheles - stylishly played by a 67-year-old Peter Fonda, trading on his Easy Rider associations - tricks him on a technicality, curing his dad but not saving his life (which reminds me of my first published short story as a 16-year-old in which a gambler sold his soul to ensure a horse he put all his money on was first past the post, the diabolical snag being that the horse was then disqualified).

So Cage reluctantly morphs at night into a leather-clad demon with a flaming skull astride an enormous blazing motorcycle, acting as a bounty hunter for his satanic keeper, and using his dark powers - in particular a Stare of Penance that confronts the bad guys with all the nasty things they've ever done - to battle Wes Bentley's Blackheart, the wayward son of Mephistopheles.

In Ghost Rider, the western meets the supernatural via the biker genre - as it did in Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk Till Dawn - a potent special effects cocktail that's enlivened by a Cage close to the quirky form of Wild At Heart, this time tuned into the Carpenters instead of Elvis, hooked on monkey karate videos and preferring cocktails of jelly beans to alcohol.

As always seems to be the case in such movies, his girlfriend Roxanne is the last to know about his supernatural powers, but despite being a journalist she's no Lois Lane: sexuality is never restrained when Eva Mendes is around. Other supporting roles are enjoyable too, particularly Sam Elliott as a grizzled old cowboy who hangs out in a cemetery and is keeper of its spooky secrets.

Although Ghost Rider's release was delayed nearly a year to avoid clashing with Pirates of the Caribbean last summer, it has confounded industry sceptics, not to mention sniffy reviewers, by grossing $44 million in its opening US weekend. It's also topping the international boxoffice charts. Don't bet against it becoming yet another lucrative franchise.