DVD REVIEWS

KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE (out of 4) It’s based on a graphic novel, so this may explain if not entirely excuse the over-the-top violence served up by Matthew Vaughn ( Kick-Ass) in this energizing take on spy movie tropes.

Any film that brings Colin Firth, Michael Caine and Mark Strong together in covert service of Her Majesty has to be worth a look, and this one is, even if the unconscionable body count makes you want to avert your gaze at times.

Taron Egerton’s Eggsy makes for an unlikely but engaging blue-collar recruit for the Kingsmen’s distinctly upper-crust society, and he’s well matched with Roxy (Sophie Cookson), his wily rival.

Samuel L. Jackson plays an evil billionaire with the usual planetary mayhem in mind, and he’s a hoot — what master villain brags of resorting to pen and paper to outfox snooping electronic eyes?

Extras include making-of featurettes and a commentary track. SERENA

(out of 4) Lumbering when it’s not being downright baffling, Susanne Bier’s Depression-era potboiler never manages to get past the feeling of being a calculated Hollywood reunion.

It’s the third Bradley Cooper/Jennifer Lawrence pairing in as many years, and by far the least felicitous one, forsaking the winning comedy of earlier films Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle for a ponderous drama of rapacious timber barons.

Cooper’s impulsive George Pembert on marries Lawrence’s sultry Serena Shaw, after the two meet-cute while passing each other on horseback during his Colorado vacation.

In short order, they’re hitched and bound for Waynesville, N.S., the foggy Appalachian mountain backwater where capitalists and environmentalists clash.

But, fatally for the movie, neither the story nor the lead actors ever catch fire.

Extras include deleted scenes and making-of featurettes. Reviews by Peter Howell