So whilst Ru Paul’s Drag Race has been around for 30 or so seasons and peaked in terms of viewership in 2016 bit there’s still a lot of love for the show which bought drag into the main stream. Long gone are the days of Danny La Rue. With the series having been franchised internationally (strangely no version in Iran) Ru Paul has branched out into film with the release of Stop that train or more precisely Stop! That! Train! that sees Tess (Ginger Minj) and DeeDee (Jujubee)having lost their jobs with train line Stank a sort of rail version of Ryanair with even less frills. But they set their eyes on working for Galmazonia Express a hyper deluxe rail service with bitch witch trolley dollies (Brooke Lynn Hytes, Marcia Marcia Marcia, Symone giving it their all to delirious effect).
Why they must Stop! That! Train!
Having blagged their way into a job with them Tess and DeeDee find themselves working on the train service to Celebration, Florida and dealing with an array of passengers that includes a stressed business man, a highly sexed drunk and a famous actress (although in her mind only and has to remind people who she is) deliciously played by Sarah Nichelle Gellar). And all would be fine if a terrible tornado dubbed Stormaganza is heading their way leaving Tess and DeeDee having to …yep, you guessed it…Stop! That! Train! It quickly becomes a national emergency that sees the US President Judy Gagwell (yes that is the level of many of the jokes) having to deal with it in the same incompetent manner of the current orange toby jug running the US.
See it….
This is densely packed with jokes both aural and visual and often in the same scene – the opening scene at the train terminal has verbal jokes on the tannoy (‘…..passengers for the train to Guantanamo Bay….’) to look out for. It’s very much taken the ground breaking parody ‘Airplane!’ as it template which is no bad thing. It’s an expected scatter gun approach to jokes which has a high turnover of jokes and consequently the density of the japes begins to run on empty after an hour or so.
But that aside ‘Stop! That! Train! is enjoyably escapist and makes for an enjoyably rowdy 90 minutes.
related feature : Daniel Craig is ‘Queer’ – reviewed here
related feature : ‘Red White and Royal Blue’ World premiere at London’s IMAX as introduced by director Matthew Lopez
Here’s the Stop that train trailer….
