@eddiebinge reviews: The Rocket Post (2004)
Eddie plays: Heinz Dombrowsky (IMDb link)
The Rocket Post tells the story of German rocket scientist Gerhard Zucher. Gerhard is commissioned to build rockets that can deliver mail quickly between two remote Scottish Hebridean islands. Set in the 1930s, Gerhard must overcome not only the islander’s prejudice of him but the pressure of returning to a National Socialist Germany. Based on a true story, the film also follows Gerhard’s romantic relationship with an islander, Catherine.
Initially filmed in 2001, The Rocket Post had difficulty finding a distributor. After no cinematic release it became available to buy on DVD in 2006 but didn’t make much of an impact. Unfortunately, it didn’t make much of an impact on us either. Despite boasting gorgeous scenery and offering a horrifying glimpse of early Nazi Germany, the romance just didn’t work for us. The story relied too much on Gerhard and Catherine’s relationship to pull at the audience’s heartstrings when there were much more interesting elements that could be focused on. The couple fall in love far too quickly (apparently all you need to do is wash someone’s back and have a short conversation about reincarnation with them to realise you’re soulmates) and with no real depth to their relationship we were left not really caring about it.
Eddie plays Heinz, Gerhard’s patriotic apprentice. Heinz doesn’t take so easily to Scotland and is therefore perpetually grumpy, often shouting and rambling angrily in German. Hints at an interesting backstory between Heinz and Gerhard were left unresolved and while initially being a good assistant Heinz becomes more of a hindrance as time goes on.
Due to the shallowness of the love story, which gradually took over the more exciting plot of the rocket building and testing, we found The Rocket Post quite a slog to get through. The ending woke us up a little bit, but not quite enough to make up for the issues we had with the rest of the film.
Favourite moment:
Every time Eddie spoke German.
(There were several more occasions)
Cuteometer rating: [5]
To be honest the main reason we’ve given Heinz a five is because he had the exact expression of this emoji for almost the entire film.
Bingo score: [1/9]
☑ Salivation
"Tears” was almost checked off but as they didn’t roll down Eddie’s cheek we’re not including it, sorry about that.
Our rating: ★ ★
The Rocket Post had beautiful locations and an unusual idea with potential, but the love story was too rushed to be convincing. For a whirlwind romance to be believable it needs substantial screen time; I mean, it’s not exactly rocket science is it? We’re so sorry but we just had to get that joke in somehow!
Where to watch: Amazon (DVD)