CASINO JACK 2 stars. Kevin Spacey gives a slick but soulless performance as disgraced super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff in this tonally all-over-the-map account of hubris and greed in the nation’s capital. 1 hr. 48 R (violence, profanity, drugs, nudity, sex, adult themes) – Steven Rea.

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER 2 1/2 stars. Maybe it’s the postproduction 3-D enhancements, but in this effects-laden Odyssey for tweens, sometimes humans and beasts seem more wax-and-paint than flesh-and-blood. Director Michael Apted deftly handles the elements of Christian allegory; it’s the infernal digital effects that prove to be beyond his capacity. 1 hr. 55 PG (violence) – Carrie Rickey

COUNTRY STRONG 2 1/2 stars. Gwyneth Paltrow stars in this Nashville romantic quadrangle set at the fork between the roads to redemption and ruin. With the Heath Ledgerish Garrett Hedlund, Taylor Swifty Leighton Meester and Tim McGraw, a complete cipher. 1 hr. 51 PG-13 (sexual candor, alcohol abuse) – Carrie Rickey

THE FIGHTER 3 1/2 stars. Based on the real-life career, and comeback, of welterweight champ “Irish” Micky Ward and the relationship with his wacko half-brother, erstwhile prizefighter Dicky Eklund, this roiling, colorful film is great in the ring, and great outside the ring, too. Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale are the pugilist sibs, Melissa Leo their mom, Amy Adams is Micky’s bareknuckle barkeep girlfriend. 1 hr. 5 R (violence, profanity, drugs, sex, adult themes) – Steven Rea

FOUR LIONS 2 1/2 stars. Fanaticism gets the farce treatment in director Chris Morris’ whopping strange and incendiary comedy about a band of bumbling British Jihads. When it works – and it doesn’t half the time – it’s as if Monty Python were back, putting its merrily imbecilic stamp on the dark world of terrorism. Pushing the envelope of political correctness well into another dimension. 1 hr. 37 R (profanity, violence, adult themes) – Steven Rea

THE GIRL WHO KICKED THE HORNET’S NEST 2 1/2 stars. The third and draggiest of the Swedish film adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s wee Millennium trilogy, this is the one that ties up the loose ends, finally meting justice out to the band of pervy old men who have made the punked-out Lisbeth Salander’s life so miserable. For Larsson completists, and Noomi Rapace fans, but not too many others. 2 hrs. 28 R (violence, adult themes) – Steven Rea

GULLIVER’S TRAVELS 1 1/2 stars. Jack Black is the big doofus who stumbles on little Lilliput in this brain-dead reworking of the Jonathan Swift satirical classic. With Amanda Peet, Emily Blunt, Jason Segel and Billy Connolly. It’s murderously unfunny, and includes, for want of anything better, a noisy faceoff between Gulliver and a towering, Transformer-like robot. 1 hr. 25 PG (mild profanity, cartoon violence, adult themes) – Steven Rea

Harry Potter AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS, PART 1 3 stars. Rather than breathlessly race from one set piece to the next, this Harry Potter adventure gives its characters and audience time to inhale and process the gravity of the situation. Unprotected by family or teachers, the wizard and his two best friends drop out of school to save Hogwart’s and themselves from the evildoing of Voldemort. 2 hrs. 26 PG-13 (suspense, violence, unsuitable for children under 10) – Carrie Rickey

HOW DO YOU KNOW 3 stars. Enjoyable, if uneven, comic romance more of the prickly-pear than love-apple variety. Reese Witherspoon is a softball player courted by baseball star Owen Wilson and out-of-work businessman Paul Rudd. 2 hrs. PG-13 (profanity, sexual candor) – Carrie Rickey

I LOVE YOU PHILLIP MORRIS 3 stars. Jim Carrey and Ewan McGregor star in this improbably true story of a inexhaustible con artist and his mad passion for a fellow inmate. Prison escapes and wild scams ensue. But so does a wonderfully sweet love story. 1 hr. 33 R (sex, profanity, adult themes) – Steven Rea

INSIDE JOB 3 1/2 stars. Charles Ferguson’s bracing account of the 2008 financial collapse and its continuing aftershocks has the twists and turns of a classic heist movie, one with real-world conequences. Narrated by Matt Damon. 2 hrs. PG-13 (drug and sexual references) – Carrie Rickey

THE KING’S SPEECH 4 stars. Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush star in this rousing Odd Couple comedy, drawn from real life, about King George VI, a stutterer, and his speech therapist. 1 hr. 51 R (profanity, but otherwise family-friendly for those 12 and over) – Carrie Rickey

LEAVING KRISTIN 3 stars. Scott Thomas gives another quiet and anguished performance as a doctor’s wife who falls for a Spanish construction worker in this gloomy but engaging film from French writer/director Catherine Corsini. 1 hr. 25 No MPAA rating (violence, sex, nudity, adult themes) – Steven Rea

LITTLE FOCKERS 2 stars. Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller return as the suspicious father-in-law who places unreasonable expectations on his daughter’s spouse. Sporadically funny, with Viagra jokes that don’t so much provoke laughs as cringes. 1 hr. 38 PG-13 (sexual candor) – Carrie Rickey

LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS 2 1/2 stars. Tonally askew romantic comedy with Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway naked a lot. But along with the sex jokes and raunch (it’s the mid-’90s, Viagra has just hit the market – and Gyllenhaal is a Pfizer salesman), there’s a “Love Story-like bummer-o-rama element, too. Hathaway’s character has early on-set Parkinson’s. 1 hr. 52 R (sex, nudity, profanity, adult themes) – Steven Rea

MADE IN DAGENHAM 3 stars. The irrepressible Sally Hawkins is the little engine that could in this fact-based story about a 1968 strike at a Ford plant in London that helpd change legislation. A story of labor triumph for this era of labor pain. 1 hr. 53 R (profanity) – Carrie Rickey

MEGAMIND 3 stars. With an origin story borrowed from Superman, a lair borrowed from Batman and a skin complexion borrowed from a robin’s egg, Megamind – the title character of DreamWorks Animation’s smart, snappy superhero send-up – is a villain to love. Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Jonah Hill and Brad Pitt deliver the snappy dialogue, and the DreamWorks Animation team delivers the goods. 1 hr. 36 PG (cartoon violence) – Steven Rea

MORNING GLORY 2 1/2 stars. With her motormouth delivery, Rachel McAdams nails the role of the morning-TV producer who’ll lower the bar to get a ratings boost. But other than McAdams, this workplace comedy also starring Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton is, at best, sporadic. 1 hr. 50 PG-13 (sexual situations, profanity) – Carrie Rickey

NEVER LET ME GO 3 1/2 stars. Sci-fi for the Belle Sebastian set: a beautifully mopey adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s much-praised novel, with Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield as young Brits in dark mood and rumpled mode, trapped in a mysterious – and, for them, tragic – alternate Britain of the 1970s and ’80s. 1 hr. 44 R (adult themes, sex, nudity) – Steven Rea

THE NEXT THREE DAYS 3 stars. Russell Crowe stars as a Pittsburgh college prof plotting to break his wife (Elizabeth Banks) out of jail, where she’s doing time on a murder rap. Taut B-movie fare, with, alas, a pace-killing police chase tagged on the end. 2 hrs. 13 PG-13 (violence, profanity, drugs, adult themes) – Steven Rea

127 HOURS 3 1/2 stars. Danny Boyle’s blunt, mythic and gutwrenching account of Aron Ralston (James Franco), the outdoorsman whose right hand and forearm are pinned to a canyon wall by a falling boulder, and his Sisysphusean struggle to survive. Not for the squeamish. 1 hr. 33 R – Carrie Rickey

RABBIT HOLE 3 stars. Wrenching, poignant, and quietly healing, John Cameron Mitchell’s adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play about a tightly-wound wife (Nicole Kidman) and her unraveling husband (Aaron Eckhart), still reeling months after losing a child. It is Kidman’s most engaging and emotionally-layered work and a triumph for all involved. 1 hr. 31 PG-13 (mature themes, profanity) – Carrie Rickey

SEASON OF THE WITCH 1 1/2 stars. Nicolas Cage is a knight of the Crusades, on the lam with fellow deserter Ron Perlman, when they’re recruited to escort a girl accused of witchcraft to her trial. Swordplay, sorcery and anachronistic dialog ensues. 1 hr. 35 PG-13 (violence, pestilence, adult themes) – Steven Rea

TANGLED 3 stars. A fractured fairy tale in the spirit of “Enchanted,” “Tangled” is a boy-friendly version of “Rapunzel,” more of a hair-raising adventure than a yearning romance. 1 he. 32 PG (mild violence) – Carrie Rickey

THE TEMPEST 2 stars. There is little magic to Julie Taymor’s flatfooted rendition of Shakespeare’s late-career play about the sorcerer, Prospero, stranded on a remote island. Taymor has reimagined him as Prospera and cast Helen Mirren,quite fine, but as beached as the character she plays. With Djimon Hounsou, Alfred Molina, Russell Brand and Ben Whishaw. 1 hr. 50 PG-13 (nudity, some scary imagery) – Carrie Rickey

TINY FURNITURE 3 1/2 stars.Writer/director/star Lena Dunham’s fiercely witty, self-lacerating study of a college grad’s aimless return to the family nest (in artsy downtown New York). Bad sex and identity crises ensue. A tiny indie with big, bold ideas – and a big prize from the South By Southwest Film Festival. 1 hr. 38 No MPAA rating (sex, profanity, adult themes) – Steven Rea

THE TOURIST 2 stars. Alarmingly charmless, pace-challenged stab at Cary Grant-Grace Kelly international intrigue and romance, with Johnny Depp (as a clueless decoy) and Angelina Jolie (as a sophisticated Brit). Notable for nice shots of Venice and for the total absence of movie star heat that movie stars are paid to radiate. 1 hr. 44 PG-13 (violence, adult themes) – Steven Rea

TRON: LEGACY 2 stars. With its Zen jargon, martial-arts moves and neon glow, the sequel to the 1982 cult picture that explored the inner life of videogames demonstrates that you can teach an old dog new Matrix. But for the hipster ravings of Jeff Bridges the sequel would otherwise be merely a gaudy Nintendo prototype. 2 hrs. 06 PG (lots of flashing lights and loud noise) – Carrie.Rickey

TRUE GRIT 3 1/2 stars. The Coen Brothers adapt Charles Portis’ novel about a plucky girl who hires a bounty hunter to collect her father’s killer, and rides on the hunt herself, determined to see things right. With Jeff Bridges as the one-eyed, boozy gunslinger Rooster Cogburn, Matt Damon as a comically fussy Texas Ranger, Josh Brolin as the villain and newcomer Hailee Steinfeld as the impossibly composed and gumptious 14-year-old heroine. 1 hr. 5- PG-13 (violence, cqcussing, adult themes) – Steven Rea

UNSTOPPABLE 2 1/2 stars. “Inspired by true events,” with Denzel Washington and Chris Pine as a veteran engineer and a novice conductor trying to stop a runaway freight train before its deadly load tumbles onto innocent Pennsylvanians. From director Tony Scott, who’s made five films with Washington now. The pair would have been good in preschool – off in a corner, monopolizing the toy cars and trains, slamming them into each other and making kabooming noise. 1 hr. 38 PG-13 (action, violence, profanity, adult themes) – Steven Rea

WAITING FOR ‘SUPERMAN’ 3 1/2 stars. Oscar-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim’s devastating diagnosis of what’s wrong with American public schools and what it would take to heal them. With Geoffrey Canada, Michelle Rhee and Randi Weingarten. 1 hr. 42 PG (incidental smoking) – Carrie Rickey

WASTE LAND 3 1/2 stars. Lucy Walker’s Oscar short-listed documentary offers an inspiring, insightful look at a world-renowned artist, Vik Muniz, and his years-long collaborative portrait project with garbage pickers in a Rio de Janeiro landfill. 1 hr. 38 No MPAA rating (adult themes) – Steven Rea

WELCOME TO THE RILEYS 2 stars. When actors linked to hugely popular roles – Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan, say, or James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano – a project that offers the chance to try something different had better be good, or else. This flat and predictable tale of a grieving middle aged man and a troubled runaway lap-dancer is that “or else. 1 hr. 50 R (profanity, sex, adult themes) – Steven Rea

WHITE MATERIAL 4 stars. Isabelle Huppert owns the character of a steel-willed French African in filmmaker Claire Denis’ study of a woman trying to hold her plantation business and her family together in the throes of violence and political upheaval. A mournful, frightening, beautiful film. 1 hr. 45 No MPAA rating (violence, nudity, adult themes) – Steven Rea

WILD TARGET 2 1/2 stars. A throwback to an earlier era of comedy, when silliness needed no subtext and soundtracks tooted whimsically, this screwball hitman-on-the-run thriller is worth seeing (1) for Bill Nighy doing his drop-dead deadpan, (2) for Emily Blunt being, well, Emily Blunt and (3) to see what Ron Weasley is up to when he’s not running around with that sorcerer pal. Yes, “HP’s” Rupert Grint, sporting a scruffy beard and cigarettes, also stars. 1 hr. 28 PG-13(cartoon mayhem, sex, adult themes) – Steven Rea

RATINGS:

4 stars: Excellent; 3 stars: Good; 2 stars: Fair; 1 star: Poor

Whether you like him or hate him, Vince Vaughn has proven time and again he can carry a movie — and lead it into megahit territory. (“Wedding Crashers,” anyone?) You can say the same thing for director Ron Howard, albeit on a more refined level. Howard is A-list all the way, from “Apollo 13” to “A Beautiful Mind,” and his projects are almost always penciled into lucrative holiday- or summer-release slots, often with an eye on awards season.

Let’s just say that in the future, “The Dilemma” isn’t going to be pushed up very high on either man’s résumé.

As cumbersome and drawn out as a slowly deflating tire, this cinematic collision between Vaughn’s celebrated funny-surly persona and Howard’s earnest pedigree is a bore — and a serious miscalculation. Vaughn gets wedged into a totally dominant, unlikable role that keeps him on screen far too long. And Howard’s direction comes across as sort of nerdy mainstream wannabe, as if he’d like to cash in on Vaughn’s edgy appeal but is far too square to really make it work.

Vaughn plays Ronny, a fast-talking Chicagoan whose best friend and business partner, Nick (an amiable Kevin James), is a talented car designer on the cusp of a big breakthrough. Both men are happily partnered: Ronny to a self-possessed chef, Beth (Jennifer Connelly), for whom he is trying to work past his commitment phobia and ask her to marry him; and Nick to the cheerful Geneva (Winona Ryder, with some nice caustic moments), who has been married to him for years.

But it turns out Ryder’s Geneva is seeing another man. When Ronny sees her kiss that man in public, he’s racked with angst: Should he tell his best friend? Or spare him the trauma?

Such is the “dilemma” of the title, which doesn’t turn out to be much of one — true to form in this sloppily written tale. (Allan Loeb turned out a screenplay that uncomfortably mashes together elements of broad farce, sweet buddy flick, offbeat humor and sophisticated relationship drama).

Simply put, it’s the kind of movie that could be over in 20 minutes if its characters acted remotely like real human beings.

Why Nick doesn’t at least tell his girlfriend about what he sees is a mystery — but then again, if he did, a third of the plot would have crumbled.

Other signs point to further script woes, including an underdeveloped Queen Latifah character (she plays a randy car executive) and a goofball cuckolder in the form of Channing Tatum, whose odd demeanor seems yet another stab at an unattained edgy comic charm.

At the lowest moment, Vaughn’s character engages in the inevitable awkward toast scene at a dinner party, and his over-the-top ramblings, which extend for a long-march eternity, pretty much sum all that is wrong with “The Dilemma”: He’s overwrought, slightly mean and mostly unfunny.

The reporter can be reached at dmunro@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6373. Read his blog at fresnobeehive.com/author/ donald_munro.