I'd assumed "Stan Lee's Harpies" was an adapted license of some kind of obscure, non-Marvel comic property he created, like Chakra the Invincible or Striperella. That seemed amusing enough to watch on Youtube for free. But no, this actually has nothing to do with comics; Stan Lee just executed produced a couple of completely stand-alone Sci-Fi channel movies, of which this is one.
So what this is, actually, is an Army of Darkness clone. I mean, it's not just similar, it's a complete and total rip-off, down to specific lines and camera shots. Stephen Baldwin is our sarcastic contemporary blue collar schlub who gets sucked through a portal back into the medieval ages, where he must lead a rag-tag group (one of the characters in the closing credits is simply billed as Fat Ugly Guy) against an evil kingdom replete with flying harpies and ruled by Scott Valentine.
It's terrible, of course. The CGI sinks to Birdemic-tier non-effort and the budget is many levels beneath AoD. Picture any random episode of Hercules or Xena, but with more corners cut because they had to stretch it out to 90 minutes. However it's also self-aware (without being cloyingly self-aware) and genuinely entertaining. Sometimes the gags are funny, more often they're not, but it's thoroughly amusing either way. This was directed by Raimi cohort Josh Becker, so there's no coincidence or subtly to this being a made-for-TV Army of Darkness, and its shamelessness is big part of its charm.
This movie is to Army of Darkness what Hell Of the Living Dead is to Dawn of the Dead. And anyone who appreciates Bruno Mattei films like that should get a kick out of this.
So what this is, actually, is an Army of Darkness clone. I mean, it's not just similar, it's a complete and total rip-off, down to specific lines and camera shots. Stephen Baldwin is our sarcastic contemporary blue collar schlub who gets sucked through a portal back into the medieval ages, where he must lead a rag-tag group (one of the characters in the closing credits is simply billed as Fat Ugly Guy) against an evil kingdom replete with flying harpies and ruled by Scott Valentine.
It's terrible, of course. The CGI sinks to Birdemic-tier non-effort and the budget is many levels beneath AoD. Picture any random episode of Hercules or Xena, but with more corners cut because they had to stretch it out to 90 minutes. However it's also self-aware (without being cloyingly self-aware) and genuinely entertaining. Sometimes the gags are funny, more often they're not, but it's thoroughly amusing either way. This was directed by Raimi cohort Josh Becker, so there's no coincidence or subtly to this being a made-for-TV Army of Darkness, and its shamelessness is big part of its charm.
This movie is to Army of Darkness what Hell Of the Living Dead is to Dawn of the Dead. And anyone who appreciates Bruno Mattei films like that should get a kick out of this.