STOP! THAT! TRAIN!: 3 ½ STARS. “No joke is too corny, no joke is left unturned.”
SYNOPSIS: In “Stop! That! Train!,” a new disaster comedy starring RuPaul and now playing in theatres, two train attendants get the jobs of a lifetime working for the luxurious Glamazonian Express just as a massive storm endangers the train, their jobs and may even their lives. “It’s a Stormaganza!”
CAST: Ginger Minj, Jujubee, Brooke Lynn Hytes, Latrice Royale, Monét X Change, Symone, RuPaul Charles, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Nicole Richie, Raven-Symoné, Michelle Visage, Chris Parnell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Charo, Natasha Leggero, Joel McHale, Missi Pyle, Jerry O’Connell, Lisa Rinna. Directed by Adam Shankman.
REVIEW: “Stop! That! Train!” is the shameless spiritual cousin to “Airplane” and other spoof movies that never met a joke it couldn’t or wouldn’t crack.
The cavalcade of jokes begins as BFFs Tess (Ginger Minj) and DeeDee (Jujubee) report for duty as attendants on the high-speed Glamazonian Express, a train so most glamorous it makes the Orient Express seem dowdy. “There ain’t no rules when you’re riding on a train,” sing the first-class train attendants in the Safety Instructions musical number. “We’re like if Amtrak was gay.”
Their first day on the job is thrown into chaos when a massive storm nicknamed a Stormaganza hits, threatening to crash the train into Los Angeles. The only route to survival is for Tess and DeeDee to team up with the condescending first-class attendants, who, with the help of President Judy Gagwell (RuPaul) just might be able to avert disaster.
One of the co-producers of “Stop! That! Train!” is the aptly named Unapologetic Projects. I say aptly named because this movie is unapologetic in its campy approach. No joke is too corny, no joke obvious, no joke is left unturned. Don’t like a joke? Hang on, there will be another one in the next five seconds.
Legendary crime writer Elmore Leronard once told me you should never use more than one “!” in every 100,000 words. The title alone of “Stop! That! Train!” uses three and director Adam Shankman pitches the performances as if there were an “!” at the end of every joke. It’s a lot, and a bit of a blunt instrument, but it’s all in good fun.
Like an episode of “Drag Race,” “Stop! That! Train!” is colorful, chaotic and escapist. It’s a whole lotta empty calories, but fans of “Drag Race” should lap up this train wreck’s the quotable moments and wild energy.
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