Mark Shorrock Movies

Stephen Whittaker loosely based his Rocket Post -- a romantic period drama leavened with quirky humor -- on the life and experiences of German rocket scientist Gerhard Zucher. The film opens circa 1938 in Southern England, where two expatriate aerospace engineers, Gerhard Zucher (Ulrich Thomsen) and Heinz Dombrowsky (Eddie Marsan), are attempting to use rockets as rapid-fire transports for regular postal mail. A regulating British official decides to assign both men to the Scottish isle of Scarp, where they can conduct rocket experiments sans interference. Personal complications arise, however, when Gerhard falls in love with local Scottish woman Catherine MacKay (Shauna MacDonald) -- and she with him. They enjoy a sweet, gentle, funny romance, and as Gerhard breaches success with his experiments, he finds his spirits lifted by the vicissitudes of Scottish life. But events take a decidedly darker turn when the Nazis show up and demand that Zucher return to Germany; if he refuses, his sister and her children will be executed. Suddenly, Zucher finds himself torn between his undying love for Catherine and his familial loyalty. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Veteran hack director Sidney J. Furie directs the silly straight-to-video comedy Rock My World. The aging stuffy English aristocrats Lord and Lady Foxley (Peter O'Toole and Joan Plowright) have fallen on hard times, so they loan out the use of their mansion to the American rock band Global Heresy. When the band's bass player mysteriously disappears, Nat (Alicia Silverstone) shows up to replace him. Then the servants don't show up, and the Foxleys are forced to pose and a maid and a butler in their own mansion. The culture class between the conservative English and the reckless Americans is played for comedy, leading to an ending where the power of rock & roll transforms both cultural groups. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide