As a long time Whedon fan I decided not to see this at the cinema but to wait until it came out on DVD and enjoy the commentaries. It didn't disappoint, very much a sort of student film (shot at the director's house!) but with a stellar cast of Whedon Alumni.
After seeing Fran Kranz as Topher in Dollhouse or Marty in Cabin in the Woods you would't necessarily cast him as the romantic hero but he does a fine job here. Reed Diamond also great as The Duke and Sean Maher playing very much against type as his villainous brother. As Joss admits in the commentary he's finally created a scenario where Alexis Denisoff and Amy Acker get to live happily ever after, as he says its' like Angel fanfic for Fred and Wes. If you've ever watched the Angel DVD extras we have Amy's audition scene for the series which actually consists of her dealing with the characters of Gunn and Wes (Alexis) suddenly breaking into Shakespearean dialogue.
Best of all though we have Nathan Fillon and Tom Lenk as Dogberry and his sidekick, playing them as 70s style cops complete with coffee pots, shoulder holsters, sunglasses and a truly awesome moustache on Tom. Never that big of a Nathan fan but here he is absolutely wonderful. It's a nice touch that they are the ones who actually catch the villain in the end.
Fairly faithful to the original text, we alter the Jew line for obvious reasons although they leave in Ethiope in the wedding scene which is surprising. We also have a female Conrade but it actually works extremely well (the actress previously playing one of Dawn's schoolgirl rivals in the Buffy story 'Him')
So a great show all around and I'd love to see more in the same vein.
After seeing Fran Kranz as Topher in Dollhouse or Marty in Cabin in the Woods you would't necessarily cast him as the romantic hero but he does a fine job here. Reed Diamond also great as The Duke and Sean Maher playing very much against type as his villainous brother. As Joss admits in the commentary he's finally created a scenario where Alexis Denisoff and Amy Acker get to live happily ever after, as he says its' like Angel fanfic for Fred and Wes. If you've ever watched the Angel DVD extras we have Amy's audition scene for the series which actually consists of her dealing with the characters of Gunn and Wes (Alexis) suddenly breaking into Shakespearean dialogue.
Best of all though we have Nathan Fillon and Tom Lenk as Dogberry and his sidekick, playing them as 70s style cops complete with coffee pots, shoulder holsters, sunglasses and a truly awesome moustache on Tom. Never that big of a Nathan fan but here he is absolutely wonderful. It's a nice touch that they are the ones who actually catch the villain in the end.
Fairly faithful to the original text, we alter the Jew line for obvious reasons although they leave in Ethiope in the wedding scene which is surprising. We also have a female Conrade but it actually works extremely well (the actress previously playing one of Dawn's schoolgirl rivals in the Buffy story 'Him')
So a great show all around and I'd love to see more in the same vein.