STOP! THAT! TRAIN!

(director: Adam Shakman; screenwriters: Connor Wright, Christina Friel; cinematographer: Luka Bazeli; editor: Joshua Kirshmer; music: Jacques Brautbar; cast: Ginger Minj (Tess), Jujubee (DeeDee), RuPaul Charles (President Gagwell), Latrice Royal (Barbra, ticket sales clerk), Matt Rogers (Press Secretary), Brock Hayhoe (Amber), Symone (Ayshieiygh), Marty Lauter (Ali), Symone (Ayshieiygh), Paul Sheer (male passenger 1), Brock Yurich (pit crew), Joel McHale (male passenger 2), Chris Parnell (Train Conctor Davenport), Brian Jordan (Cal, assistant conductor), Rachel Bloom (Donna, weather girl), Missi Pyle (Horny divorcee), Sarah Michelle Gellar (famous actress), Mayan Lopez (pregnant passenger), Lisa Rinna (celebrity), Nicole Richie (workaholic), Charo (traffic controller); Runtime: 92; MPAA Rating: R; producers: RuPaul Charles, Adam Shakman; Bleecker Street/Cinetic Media; 2026)

“Lively comedy that falters down the stretch.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Adam Shakman  (“Hairspray”/”A Walk to Remember”) directs this lively comedy that falters down the stretch. It’s written by Connor Wright and Christina Friel as a campy version of Airplane! and Rupaul’s Drag Queen, with a cast filled with drag queens. It’s made on a low-budget and with a sheer determination to get over despite too many gags that are flat.

The incompetent female President Gagwell (RuPaul Charles) must deal with a transportation problem due to an approaching big storm. The passengers on the run-away high-speed luxury Glamazonian Express (it’s fictional)  leaving  L.A. for Celebration, Florida, need help because they are in the path of “stormaganza” and the train malfunctioned.

The conductor (Chris Parnell) is sidelined after bitten by a scorpion. So it’s up to the meteorologist Donna (Rachel Bloom) in the control room, an inept President Gagwell at the WH, and the hot hostesses Tess (Ginger Minj) and DeeDee (Jujubee), newly hired, to get them through this crisis. The ladies must also deal with a former rival, Amber (Brock Hayhoe), who with her bully cronies (Matt Lauer & Symone) get under their skin.


The story follows the disaster formula. But only a few of the slapstick jokes are worthy of a smile, the characters are uninteresting, and the story is strained. It needed a better script.

It played at the NewFest.

REVIEWED ON 6/17/2026  GRADE: C+
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