Directed by Ron Howard. Starring Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder, Channing Tatum, Queen Latifah 12A cert, gen release, 112 min

CONFIRMED BFs Ronny (Vince Vaughn) and Nick (Kevin James) have been madly in love since college, a boy-crush they express through a mutual love of muscle cars and occasional drunken hugs.

Sure, Nick has a frazzled- looking wife (Winona Ryder) and Ronny is thinking about taking his longtime squeeze (Jennifer Connelly) up the aisle, but we’ve all seen enough Vince Vaughn movies to know where best mates fall in the pecking order.

Now, just as the chaps are about to close a million-dollar deal that will make electric cars “less gay”, their fraternal bonds are put to the test. Can Ronny bring himself to tell Nick that he’s just seen the latter’s missus cavorting with Channing Tatum? And when will the fellows call time on this abysmal film?

Trailer-watchers take note: the banana skin moments couldn't be more misleading. A bromance with the hetero-eroticism turned up to 11, The Dilemmais way too heavy for knockabout comedy, yet way too idiotic to be anything else. We are, instead, in the dramedy zone.

Don't panic just yet; this is, after all, the fertile seam that produced Little Miss Sunshineand The Royal Tenenbaums. Unhappily, the latest film from Ron Howard is the other sort of dramedy, a wretched, disappointed comedy of the Funny Peoplevariety.

Vaughn and James have a decent screen chemistry, but no amount of charm can compensate for a lazy, mawkish script. Really, nobody emerges unscathed. Connelly is dreary in the role of boring, sensible girlfriend; James exists only as a cuckolded device; Queen Latifah pops up on three separate occasions to say “lady wood”; Ryder, her doe-eyed features now hardened into a mask of permanent bewilderment, looks disturbingly ill at ease.

It's left to Vaughn to monologue his way through the mess. Once he might have talked his way around the film's clumsy shifts in tone, unforgivable longueurs and crass product placements. But this is autopilot Vaughn, the star of Four Christmasesand Couples Retreat, and we're no longer feeling the love. It's time for the Frat Pack to graduate from Bromance University.