Stop! That! Train! Review: A First-Class Campy Comedy

Some movies are carefully crafted prestige projects designed to impress audiences with their ambition while courting critics, stakeholders, and awards voters. Others exist for one purpose: to make people laugh until they can barely breathe.

Stop! That! Train! proudly belongs in the second category.

Directed by Adam Shankman, this delightfully ridiculous disaster comedy embraces the kind of broad, unapologetic silliness that has become increasingly rare in modern filmmaking.

Packed with visual gags, absurd one-liners, celebrity cameos, musical numbers, and enough camp to power an entire Pride Month celebration, Stop! That! Train! throws itself headfirst into the madness and invites the audience to come along for the ride.

The story follows best friends Tess (Ginger Minj) and DeeDee (Jujubee), two train attendants whose careers take an unexpected turn when they find themselves aboard the glamorous Glamazonian Express.

What begins as a simple workplace comedy quickly escalates into a full-blown disaster movie involving a dangerous weather event, political chaos, haunted tunnels, luxury train drama, and more than a few unexpected celebrity appearances.

Trying to summarize the plot almost feels beside the point. The real joy comes from watching the movie continuously find new ways to surprise its audience.

Every time it seems like the film has exhausted a joke, it introduces another bizarre subplot, unexpected visual gag, or completely unhinged character. The pace is relentless in the best possible way. Even when a joke doesn’t land, three more are already racing toward the screen.

At the center of the chaos are Ginger Minj and Jujubee, who prove to be a fantastic comedic pairing. Their chemistry feels effortless, giving the film an emotional anchor beneath all of the madness.

While everyone around them is operating at maximum absurdity, their friendship provides just enough heart to keep the audience invested.

RuPaul is equally entertaining as President Judy Gagwell, delivering a performance that perfectly matches the film’s exaggerated tone. Rather than simply making a cameo, RuPaul becomes an integral part of the movie’s escalating insanity, and every appearance feels like an event.

The supporting cast deserves recognition as well.

From Rachel Bloom to Sarah Michelle Gellar and an endless stream of familiar faces, nearly everyone seems eager to join the fun. The film wisely understands that comedy works best when performers fully commit, and nobody appears concerned with looking cool or restrained. The result is a cast that feels completely liberated to be as ridiculous as possible.

What makes Stop! That! Train! particularly successful is that it never apologizes for its sense of humor.

The film draws inspiration from classic parody comedies, but it never feels trapped by nostalgia. Instead, it embraces drag culture, camp aesthetics, and queer comedy traditions while remaining accessible to audiences who may not know a single thing about RuPaul’s Drag Race.

The references reward longtime fans, but the humor works even if you’ve never watched an episode.

There are certainly moments where logic completely disappears. Then again, logic was never invited on this train. The movie operates according to its own wonderfully chaotic rules, and questioning them would only get in the way of the fun.

Most importantly, Stop! That! Train! feels joyful, which is something that the world could use a bit more of these days.

At a time when many comedies seem afraid to be genuinely goofy, this film embraces its ridiculousness without hesitation. It wants audiences to laugh, cheer, groan at terrible puns, and leave the theater with a smile on their face.

Mission accomplished.

Stop! That! Train! is loud, outrageous, unapologetically camp, and consistently entertaining. It may not be subtle, but subtlety was never the goal. Sometimes all a movie needs to do is deliver a good time.

This one delivers first class service.

Stop! That! Train! is now playing in theaters!

 

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