Stop! That! Train! is rollicking good fun and is definitely worth a visit to the cinema.
Stop! That! Train! is a hilarious action disaster film with a huge drag cast and is glorious from start to finish.
The film follows train stewardesses and long-term friends, Tess (Ginger Minj) and DeeDee (Jujubee) who become unemployed after their train line employer, Stank Rail, closes. They sneak on board the opulent Glamazonian Express train badly disguised as their train stewardesses and meet the conceited Amber (Brooke Lynn Hytes), Alli (Marcia Marcia Marcia), and Ayshleiygh (Symone) who are the stewardesses for the first class carriage.
Elsewhere at the United States Train Command Center, Donna Dusk (Rachel Bloom), who is constantly harassed for being a female employee, discovers that there is a huge storm developing called a Stormaganza and the Glamazonian Express is heading straight into it.
Back on board the Glamazonian Express , the train has lost its brakes, chaos reigns and the train driver has been bitten by a scorpion. The President of the US, Judy Gagwell (RuPaul) hears the news of the train’s plight and delivers a public statement but has a distressing flashback to when she worked for the United Train Force and she accidentally ran over a little girl. President Gagwell, Tess and DeeDee must work together to save the train and prevent disaster if the train continues into Florida.
Written by Christina Friel and Connor Wright the jokes (both verbal and visual) come thick and fast which mostly land and only occasionally miss. Director, Adam Shankman, expertly brings the action and the storyline together as it builds to the conclusion. Cinematographer Luka Bazeli does a superb job in producing some stunning scenes.
Ginger Minj, Jujubee, RuPaul perform exceptionally and are often upstaged by Brooke Lynn Hytes, Marcia Marcia Marcia, and Symone. Bloom also performs excellently with the rest of the cast. The cameos by Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jesse Tyler Ferguson are also terrific.
With so much stupidity in America over the last couple of years in relation to the drag community, it is encouraging to see a film that takes firm aim at that idiocy. Stop! That! Train! is rollicking good fun and is definitely worth a visit to the cinema.
Reviewed by Rob McKinnon
Rating 4.5 out of 5
Distributor: Universal Pictures
