When the entire world tuned in ...

'The Dish' serves up a funny little story

In this story: Cliches, chuckles History with a smile RELATED SITES

By Paul Clinton
CNN Reviewer

(CNN) -- The plot, at times, is as thin as sliced prosciutto, but that's OK. "The Dish," the latest film from Australia, does have its moving, triumph-of-the-human-spirit moments, and they ultimately make this film worth watching

The movie, set in the summer of 1969, is based on the true story of a small group of eccentric scientists manning a satellite dish located in the middle of nowhere on a sheep farm near the small town of Parkes in New South Wales, Australia. Through a series of mishaps, this dish becomes the only apparatus on Earth that can transmit the broadcast images of Apollo 11's landing on the moon and astronaut Neil Armstrong's historic lunar footsteps.

Does "One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" sound familiar?

Well, Armstrong's famous statement and heroic step made on July 20, 1969, never would have been heard or seen around the world by an estimated audience of 600 million people if not for this small band of dedicated, unsung heroes. As one character remarks, "The Americans spent 10 years and billions of dollars to let us watch a man on the moon, and in the end it falls to you blokes."

Most of the film's actors, including Sam Neill (best known for roles in "Jurassic Park," 1993, and "The Hunt for Red October," 1990), are from Australia or New Zealand. Neill plays Cliff Buxton, the group's supervisor and a recent widower. The other best-known face of the bunch is an American actor, Patrick Warburton (TV's "Dave's World" and "Seinfeld"), who plays Al Burnett, a by-the-book NASA expert sent to ensure the mission's success.

Cliches, chuckles

VIDEO Movie trailer for 'The Dish' Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)

MORE REVIEWS Van Wilder High Crimes Big Trouble Panic Room Blade II Ice Age Showtime Time Machine We Were Soldiers Queen of the Damned Dragonfly Iris John Q Big Fat Liar Collateral Damage Monster's Ball Slackers Birthday Girl Monte Cristo Mothman Orange County Charlotte Gray I Am Sam Gosford Park Black Hawk Down Ali Kate & Leopold Shipping News Jimmy Neutron Joe Somebody Beautiful Mind The Majestic The Lord of the Rings Lantana The Royal Tenenbaums Vanilla Sky No Man's Land Affair of the Necklace Enemy Lines In the Bedroom Spy Game Sidewalks Harry Potter Shallow Hal Man Who Wasn't There Heist Amelie Focus Domestic Disturbance Tape Monsters, Inc. Life As A House My First Mister K-Pax From Hell Riding in Cars Last Castle Mulholland Drive Bandits Serendipity Joy Ride Training Day Don't Say a Word Zoolander Hearts in Atlantis Glitter Liam The Glass House Hardball The Musketeer Rock Star O Bubble Boy Jade Scorpion Corelli's Mandolin Apocalypse Redux Now American Pie 2 The Others Osmosis Jones Ghost World Rush Hour 2 Jackpot Planet of the Apes America's Sweethearts Jurassic Park III Legally Blonde The Score SongCatcher Cats and Dogs Scary Movie 2 crazy/beautiful A.I. The Fast and the Furious Dr. Dolittle 2 Atlantis Tomb Raider Swordfish Evolution Worst That Could Happen? Pearl Harbor Angel Eyes Shrek Calle 54 A Knight's Tale Mummy Returns About Adam One Night at McCool's Town and Country The Claim Freddy Got Fingered Bridget Jones's Diary Joe Dirt Along Came a Spider Blow Tailor of Panama Someone Like You Heartbreakers Say It Isn't So Enemy at the Gates The Dish Blow Dry 15 Minutes The Caveman's Valentine The Mexican 3000 Miles to Graceland Monkeybone Sweet November Hannibal Shadow of the Vampire The Gift Snatch Chunhyang Finding Forrester O Brother, Where Art Thou Thirteen Days Before Night Falls Vatel The House of Mirth Traffic Malena An Everlasting Piece All the Pretty Horses Miss Congeniality The Family Man Cast Away Chocolat What Women Want Emperor's New Groove Crouching Tiger,  Hidden Dragon Proof of Life Vertical Limit Dungeons & Dragons Unbreakable Quills 102 Dalmatians Just Looking What's Cooking The 6th Day The Grinch Bounce Boesman and Lena A Room for Romeo Brass You Can Count on Me Men of Honor Red Planet Little Nicky Wonder Boys Legend of Bagger Vance Charlie's Angels George Washington Lucky Numbers Blair Witch 2 The Yards Pay It Forward Bedazzled Lost Souls The Contender Billy Elliot Dr. T and the Women Requiem for a Dream Meet the Parents CyberWorld 3D The Broken Hearts Club Girlfight Best in Show Beautiful Remember the Titans Into the Arms of Strangers Under Suspicion Woman on Top Dancer in the Dark Crime and Punishment in Suburbia Duets The Ballad of Ramblin' Jack Bait Almost Famous 'Went to Coney Island on a Mission from God ...Be Back by Five' The Watcher Nurse Betty Whipped Love and Sex Bring It On The Crew Art of War The Cell Original Kings Of Comedy Autumn in New York Tao of Steve Cecil B. Demented The Replacements Wonderland New Waterford Girl Hollow Man Space Cowboys Coyote Ugly Criminal Lovers Saving Grace Nutty Professor II What Lies Beneath Loser The Wisdom of Crocodiles Chuck & Buck X-Men But I'm a Cheerleader Blood Simple Scary Movie Disney's The Kid Trixie Rocky and Bullwinkle Sunshine The Perfect Storm The Patriot Me, Myself & Irene Chicken Run Boys and Girls Shaft Titan A.E. American Pimp Gone in 60 Seconds Passion of Mind Big Momma's House Mission: Impossible 2 Small Time Crooks East Is East Dinosaur Center Stage Battlefield Earth The Big Kahuna Virgin Suicides Gladiator Me Myself I Time Code Where the Heart Is Frequency 28 Days U-571 Joe Gould's Secret American Psycho Keeping the Faith Here on Earth Rules of Engagement Return to Me Romeo Must Die The Road to El Dorado The Ninth Gate Mifune Waking the Dead Beyond the Mat Erin Brockovich You be the critic! Recommend a movie on our message board

The rest of the characters fall into the same generic categories seen in thousands of films, even though this is a true story.

Kevin Harrington plays Ross "Mitch" Mitchell, the resident hothead. Tom Long portrays Glenn Latham, techno-nerd, and Tayler Kane plays Rudi, the ever-present and constantly clueless security guard.

All the supporting players fall into similar cliches. Roy Billing portrays the hapless local mayor. Bille Brown is the one-dimensional, stereotypical politician and veteran character actor John McMartin covers no new ground as an American ambassador/ NASA groupie.

That said, "The Dish" is generally an entertaining "sink or swim" comedy in spite of its cookie-cutter characters and lethargic pacing. Our heroic group faces a number of daunting obstacles along the way to its appointment with history, but none of the dramatic stuff kicks in until halfway through the film.

Keeping things interesting is the fact that the movie was shot at the actual location of the dish, a mammoth, 1,000-ton telescope the size of a football field. Director Rob Sitch tries valiantly to make the slow movement of this gigantic piece of equipment compelling by using Edmund Choi's rich musical score augmented with numerous camera angles, but there's just not much tension involved in the laborious action.

History with a smile

"The Dish" is one of the highest-grossing films in Australian history, and it was developed by the same creative team -- Santo Cilauro, Tom Gleisner, Jane Kennedy and Sitch -- that brought moviegoers "The Castle" (made in 1997 but released in the United States last year), another small, character-driven comedy.

All the main players turn in charming performances within the limitations of their characters, and the film does bring home the danger, blind luck and reckless heroism of the Apollo 11 mission, an effort launched before NASA knew if the men it was sending to the moon could get back to Earth safely.

At heart, "The Dish" is a nostalgic look back at a time when the whole world was divided by the Cold War, then suddenly united by flickering images from the moon beamed back to TV sets around the world. Those images depict the voyage of men who did what once had been considered the stuff of dreams: Walk on the surface of the moon.

If you hang in there, "The Dish" will reward you with a heartfelt story about ordinary people rising to meet extraordinary circumstances.

"The Dish" opened in limited markets on Wednesday and will open wider later in the month. Rated PG-13. 104 minutes.

Working Dog Productions

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.