New on DVD: 'Ghost Writer,' 'Kick-Ass' and more

THE GHOST WRITER (PG-13) 3.5 stars

PLOT The Ghost, as Ewan McGregor's steadfastly anonymous protagonist is called, is a young author assigned to pen the memoirs of a retired British prime minister after the first author's mysterious death. The day the Ghost seals the deal, he's whisked to an island off Massachusetts, where former prime minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) lives in an elegantly appointed concrete bunker with his wife (Olivia Williams) and a staff of comely assistants. As the Ghost sets to work on the project, he realizes that Lang's distant reticence, a tight deadline and curiously tight security around the project will be the least of his problems.

EXTRAS Commentary, interviews

LIST PRICES DVD: $26.99; Blu-ray: $40.99

KICK-ASS (R) 2.5 stars

PLOT Director Matthew Vaughn's profane, ultraviolent, surprisingly winning adaptation of Mark Millar's comic-book series should delight fans of the original comics and garden-variety action junkies as well. Aaron Johnson plays Dave Lizewski, a bespectacled, mild-mannered high school student who, after being mugged for the umpteenth time, wonders why more everyday people don't dress up like superheroes and become vigilantes. Soon thereafter, Dave is dressing up in a green wet suit, yellow rubber gloves and work boots and . . . pretty much getting his butt whipped.

EXTRAS Commentary, featurettes

LIST PRICES DVD: $29.95; Blu-ray: $39.99

- The Washington Post