Movie review: ‘Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol’

By the time a film series has reached the fourth sequel, it can be difficult to maintain momentum and keep holding the audience’s interest. No matter how great the original idea was, it’s hard to come up with fresh material by the fourth go-around. It’s even more of a challenge to take that fourth sequel and not only turn it into the best film of the whole franchise, but to make it one of the best action movies of the year. Yet that’s exactly what “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” does.

The film has earned an impressive 93 percent on the film rating website Rotten Tomatoes, and according to the Internet Movie Database, the film has taken in $78.65 million at the U.S. box office so far.

“Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” follows veteran IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team on a globe-trotting mission that takes the spies to Russia, Dubai and India as they try to track down a terrorist bent on inciting global nuclear war. When the terrorist manages to pin a bombing at the Kremlin in Moscow on Ethan and his team, the spies are “disavowed” and forced to go underground. However, they are asked to unofficially continue their mission to stop the terrorist, and at the very last second manage to stop a nuclear warhead from exploding (the film’s climax takes the phrase “close call” to a whole new level).

The film is directed by Brad Bird, perhaps best known for his computer-animated Pixar movie “The Incredibles.” He makes the transition to film quite successfully here, bringing the same wit, intricate plot and fast-paced action that made “The Incredibles” so great. Michael Giacchino provides a nice score, including a fun take on the classic “Mission Impossible” theme in the film’s opening credits sequence.

Although the movie has all the elements you expect in a spy movie — car chases, shoot outs, etc. — it manages to up the ante and present them in a new way. Some stand-out action set pieces include a car chase in a sand storm; the team’s daring Kremlin break-in; and what is probably the most death-defying crawl up the side of a skyscraper ever featured in a film.

In the movie’s most impressive scene, Ethan Hunt climbs up the side of the “Burj Khalifa” in Dubai, the world’s tallest skyscraper, using only special adhesive gloves. My stomach started churning as soon as the camera panned out the window and showed how far of a drop it was to the ground. Even if you’re not afraid of heights, this scene gets pretty intense, especially when one of the gloves gives out and Ethan almost falls off the skyscraper.

The film also features plenty of fun spy gadgets, such as a camera disguised as a contact lens; a magnetic, levitating suit; and a sheet of high-tech material that can display a rendering of any surface (Ethan and another agent hide behind this sheet in one scene in the Kremlin; the sheet projects an image of the blank wall and the statue behind them, making it appear as if the spies aren’t really there).

Regardless of how you feel about Tom Cruise as a person or as an actor, he’s definitely brought his “A game” here. He’s also joined by a strong supporting cast, including the always-witty Simon Pegg as a computer expert; Paula Patton as an agent who’s struggling not to make the mission personal; and Jeremy Renner as an analyst who may not be exactly who he first appears.

“Casino Royale” may still be my favorite spy movie, but “Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol” is one of the best espionage flicks I’ve seen in a long time. I think Brad Bird and Tom Cruise can call this one “mission accomplished.”

The man behind Stephen Hawking’s voice

Sam Blackburn has been Hawking’s technician since 2006. And for these 5 years, he’s the one responsible for the technology that has allowed Hawking to communicate through a computer and a voice synthesizer by twitching his cheek.
Now he’s moving on. New Scientist reports.
When he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (or ALS) at 21, physicist Stephen Hawking was only expected to live a few years. He turns 70 this week.

Since about 1986, he’s had to use a menu controlled by a computer system to speak. A computer highlights cells in a big grid of letters or words, and when the correct one is highlighted, he presses a switch.
But when he became unable to move his hands sufficiently, he moved to an infrared system mounted on his glasses, which detects movement in his cheek muscle. His facial muscles are the only ones he can control reasonably well.
When Blackburn first started, the system was breaking all the time. “I’d get calls at 1 o’clock in the morning saying ‘Stephen can’t speak, what do we do?’” he says. “So I needed to modernize the system.”
He did so incrementally, so the learning wouldn’t be too steep. “Stephen wouldn’t be able to ask for help because the very thing he wouldn’t be able to use would be the speech system,” he says. “Understandably that has made him very reluctant to upgrade.”
The only copy of Hawking’s hardware voice synthesizer is contained in a little gray box in Blackburn’s office. The card inside dates back to the 80s, and this particular one contains Hawking’s voice. There’s a processor on it that has a unique program that turns text into speech that sounds like Hawking’s, and they have only two of these cards.
The company that made them went bankrupt and nobody knows how it works any more. Blackburn is trying to reverse engineer it since they can’t just update the system with a new synthesizer.
“The voice is one of the unique things that defines Stephen in my opinion,” he explains. “He could easily change to a voice that was clearer, perhaps more soothing to listen to – less robotic sounding – but it wouldn’t be Stephen’s voice any more.”
However, Hawking’s progressive nerve decay means that his ability to control his cheek muscle is fading. His rate of speech is down to about one word per minute. And while Blackburn’s been making slight advances in the current technology, they’re gonna have to move on to something new – like eye-tracking or brain scanning systems.
The challenge for Blackburn’s successor: to keep that well-known voice in working order.

Scientists create living LED screens out of glowing bacteria

Here's some cool news for people who love anything that glows in the dark: Scientists at UC San Diego have figured out how to make millions of fluorescent E. coli bacteria flash all at once, creating a sort of living LED screen.
Jeff Hasty, a professor of biology and bioengineering who headed the research team in the university's Division of Biological Sciences and BioCircuits Institute, said it took him and his team about five years and a series of papers to develop what he calls the "biopixels" that make up the living LED screen.
Back in 2008 Hasty and his team published a paper that showed how they built a biological clock inside a single bacterial cell that would tell the bacteria when to produce a flashing, glowing light.
In a second paper published in 2010 they showed they could synchronize thousands of bacteria in the same colony to blink on and off in unison.
The next step was to find out if they could get bacteria in different colonies to blink on and off at the same time.
"We were wondering if we could get the bacteria to communicate over large distances," Hasty said.
A long distance in the bacterial world might be 1 centimeter, he added.
As it turned out, they could communicate over long distances by having the bacterial cells create a vapor that allows the different colonies to communicate with each other almost instantaneously.
And so the living LED screen was born.
It's all on a very micro scale right now. So far, the scientists have made screens -- or chips -- of two sizes. The larger chip contains about 13,000 colonies, or biopixels, (50 to 60 million bacterial cells) and is about the size of a paper clip. The smaller chip (pictured above) contains about 2.5 million cells -- or 500 colonies -- and is about a 10th of the size of the larger chip.
Hasty said his team could eventually get the bacteria to communicate over by another order of magnitude.
We wondered if the ability to program bacteria to light up at will might make its way into a living neon signs -- no electricity needed.
"There is nothing that would preclude a company from making a beer sign out of these, but I'm not sure how marketable that is given that a bar would have a sign full of living bacteria hanging in its window," Hasty said.
He and his team have other applications for their living LED screen in mind. They have been able to engineer a simple bacterial sensor that can detect low levels of arsenic, and cause the bacteria to flash more quickly if arsenic is found.
"So if you are in Bangladesh and you want to know if there is arsenic in your water, you could use a sensor made out of these chips," Hasty said. "That's more the direction we are headed."

Hague: Burma needs to do more before sanctions are lifted

William Hague met Aung San Suu Kyi at her residence in Burma. Photograph: Nyein Chan Naing/EPA

William Hague, the British foreign secretary, has warned Burmese authorities that "much more is needed to be done" before EU sanctions on the country are lifted.
Calling for the swift release of political prisoners, Hague said that although there is a clear "momentum for change", the international community needs to maintain pressure on authorities.
Hague is on the first visit by such a senior British official to Burma since 1955.
Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel prize winner and leader of the pro-democracy movement in Burma, told reporters after a meeting with Hague that "in order to realise our dreams we have to work very hard indeed".
"I do not believe in dreaming for the sake of dreaming. We have to have a goal in mind," she said. "[Getting there] boils down to ... hard work."
Aung San Suu Kyi, who had a private dinner with Hague on Thursday night, spent Friday morning in discussions with the foreign secretary at her home in Rangoon, where she has spent much of the last 23 years under house arrest.
Hague described himself as a great admirer of Aung San Suu Kyi, who was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1991, and of her work for democracy.
"There is now a chance that what she and her colleagues have worked for so long will actually take place if progress towards democracy continues to be made," he said.
A civilian president, Thein Sein, was appointed by the military dictator Than Shwe last March.
Than Shwe has kept a low profile since but is believed to exercise considerable influence behind the scenes. In November 2010 an election, described as flawed by observers, was held, a nominally civilian government is now in power, media censorship has been eased and a range of other reforms are being enacted. Around 200 political prisoners currently held have been freed in a series of amnesties.
The exact motivation behind the decision of Than Shwe and the clique of senior military men to distance himself from power is still unclear. Analysts point to the potential for a powerful group of former military men and their families to earn huge wealth from international trade and the rapid development of what is currently one of the poorest countries in the world. Another factor may be a desire to dilute an increasingly heavy Chinese influence.
A key objective of the authorities is the lifting of EU and US sanctions.
Hague said he had been convinced that Thein Sein was "sincere" in his meeting on Thursday but called for the release of remaining political prisoners. The most recent amnesty earlier this week disappointed many, when only around a dozen prisoners were freed.
"It is not possible to say a country is free and democratic while people are still in prison on the grounds of their political beliefs. It is vital that they be released if [sanctions] are to be removed," he told reporters.
Hague also called for greater humanitarian access to areas of ethnic conflict and "visibly" free and fair polls when bye elections are held in April. These will be contested by the National League of Democracy and, possibly, Aung San Suu Kyi herself. The party boycotted the election of 2010.
Analysts in Rangoon said that the Burmese authorities could meet most of the conditions set out by Hague relatively quickly. Although the political prisoners are seen as a useful bargaining chip, they could be freed rapidly and there have already been significant improvements in humanitarian groups' ability to work in Burma.
Much depends on the relative power of factions within the opaque ruling cliques.
"The problem is the ongoing struggle between reformists and hardliners," said Thi Ha Saw, the editor of a local newspaper.
Hague is one of a succession of senior international officials to visit Burma. Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, visited last month. Thai, Indonesian and Japanese dignitaries have also travelled to Naypyidaw, the new capital, and Rangoon. On Friday night Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to meet a Danish delegation. The French foreign minister is expected shortly.

Can Rafael Nadal rebound in 2012?

If Novak Djokovic didn't exist, Rafael Nadal probably would have had another incredible season. Only problem is that Djokovic does exist, and that's a problem. However, it's a new season, and as they say, the past is the past. Will Rafa return to the form that saw him win three Slammies in 2010, or will he again succumb to the sublime Serb?

How will the Davis Cup championship affect Nadal going forward in 2012?

Greg Garber: Not in a good way. Although Djokovic found a new confidence in leading Serbia to the Davis Cup title in 2010, vaulting him into the best season of his career, Rafa is a bit banged up, mentally and physically. After leading Spain to its third title in four years in 2011, Nadal said he would sit out this year's edition of Davis Cup. He has a sore shoulder and a bruised psyche from failing in all six matches against Djokovic and plans to rest for a few weeks after the Australian Open.

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Karim Jaafar/Getty ImagesEven though Rafael Nadal won the French Open and the Davis Cup championship, it still felt like a disappointing season.

Kamakshi Tandon: It probably won't have quite the effect winning the Davis Cup did for Djokovic, which kick-started the Serb's dominant 2011 season. Both Spain and Nadal had won the Davis Cup before, so there wasn't quite the same euphoria. And the final was played on clay, so it didn't exactly take him out of his comfort zone. If anything, the final probably hurt Nadal's preparation for the upcoming season by costing him a week of training time and forcing a surface switch in between two hard-court stretches. But winning is always better than losing, so at least he ended the season on a positive note.
Ravi Ubha: Nadal needed a confidence boost to end last season, and that's what he got in Seville. However, it probably won't lead to the season Djokovic had after he led Serbia to the Davis Cup title. For starters, Nadal says his shoulder is bothering him. If that's indeed the case, I can't see him winning in Melbourne. He might be able to get away with subpar serve speeds versus most players, but not against the true elite. Shoulder injuries can linger. And winning the Davis Cup title won't help him in trying to figure out how to beat Djokovic.
Matt Wilansky: No doubt about it. Winning fosters confidence, and that's exactly what Nadal needed -- even more than rest. We talk often about the lack of offseason in tennis, but he's had over a month to regroup, relax and rehab. That's more downtime than the average Joe gets in an entire year. Also, don't forget Nadal had to overcome mental hurdles versus Juan Martin del Potro in a four-set doozy, which clinched the tie. Does this automatically mean he'll have a Djokovic-esque year? Not at all, but it won't hurt him one bit.

Can anyone stop Nadal (even Nadal) from winning a seventh French Open title?

Garber: No. He's won an astonishing 45 of 46 matches at Roland Garros, and after this year's tournament, he'll be 52-for-53. Those who predicted he could win six or seven French Opens actually might have been too conservative. Rafa's game and historic mental strength are perfect for the grinding game needed to win on clay. Even if he's a little nicked up, he'll find a way.