The Dish Cert 12

When I saw the title of this latest Australian comedy, The Dish - man landing on the moon wasn't my first choice as the obvious subject matter.
It's 1969, and in the small sleepy town of Parkes, New South Wales, Cliff Buxton, played by Sam Neil is the steady, cardigan-wearing, pipe-smoking director of the Dish the largest radio telescope in the Southern hemisphere.
The whole town is buzzing with the news that NASA needs their dish in order to transmit live  audio and T.V. pictures of the actual moon landing to the whole of the viewing world. But while the Mayor is revving up to meet the Australian Prime Minister and the U.S. Ambassador, not everything is running quite so smoothly back at the Dish. Tetchy technician  "Mitch" Mitchell, superbly played by Kevin Harrington doesn't like the official whom NASA has sent to oversee things, Al Burnett. With Patrick Warburton, formerly of Seinfeld fame, playing Al, the two give just the right mix of transcontinental culture clash. Put into the middle of this Glen Latham aka Tom Long another clever but socially inept technician and you've got the basic recipe for
some great comedy.
The results are extremely funny but it isn't until things begin to go wrong and they lose all contact with Apollo 11 that the team start to pull together.
Perhaps inevitably, both Yank and Aussies start to bond as they end up faking transmissions from Neil Armstrong and making life-threatening decisions to get the vital pictures to the world.
Based on a true story - NASA really did depend on a telescope situated in the middle of a sheep field in Parkes for mankind's giant leap. The Dish is gentle but amazingly funny.
In an age where the true impact of what landing on the moon
actually meant to people has more or less been forgotten, director Robert Stich manages to recreate the experience so that the awe and magic of the lunar landing rubs off on the viewer.
The Dish is a funny and genuinely warm movie with scenes and one liners guaranteed to make you laugh. It's a sweet natured comedy with a core of simple humanity  - a film which doesn't leave you feeling battered and bruised when you leave the cinema but happy and satisfied . So, if you fancy a treat that's out of this world, head for the Dish.