As Time Goes by

The idea of a sci-fi western parody probably wouldn't make sense anywhere else but in the remote Australian outback, maybe the perfect setting for this contrived madcap spoof. Among the cast of eccentrics are, in no particular order: a slightly goony surfer who's been waiting a quarter century to keep an appointment in the back of beyond; a bitter outback cop who once accidentally killed his own son during a cricket game; a scientist who dresses like Pee Wee Herman and hopes to capture a Nobel Prize and a genuine extraterrestrial; a cattle tycoon with plans to make the desert bloom using the Earth's ozone layer; his two sheep-hating henchmen; a shopkeeper with a passionate fear of dust; a spaceship that sells Budweiser beer; a cocktail shaker time machine; and a radioactive alien named Joe Bogart, played by Max Gillies, who behaves as if he wants to be known (fat chance) as Australia's answer to Robin Williams. With characters like this, who needs a plot?