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Stop! That! Train!

Coming out of the same studio that gave us RuPaul's Drag Race, and stacked with a whole crew of former contestants, Stop! That! Train! plays like RuPaul basically taking a bow for the entire franchise she's built. It's not really a gay film in the traditional sense, but with so many drag stars from Ru's shows popping up alongside a few cameos from well known out gay actors, I figured it earns a spot on this blog anyway. The whole thing is completely over the top, packed with GenZ slang, loud flashy visuals, and humor that's constantly winking at you knowing how ridiculous it is. Going in you'd assume it's meant to be a laugh riot, and a lot of critics online seem to be eating it up, but I just couldn't get into it at all. I've never really been someone who vibes with campy silly stuff like this, so honestly my reaction doesn't surprise me one bit. The setup follows Tess and DeeDee, two low level stewardesses who sneak onto the fancy Glamazonian E...

Kaboom

I think this was my first sci-fi gay themed movie. This film could have been so much more entertaining and fulfilling but alas!! the promise that the film builds up in first half come s crashing down towards the final reels of the film. Laced with overall pretty scent performances, the film's screenplay in the end is a huge let down.

Smith is a 18 year old college student who lives in a dorm with his straight room-mate Thor, on whom he totally has a crush on. His all time best friend is Stella, who we find out is lesbian. Smith has been having this weird dream for a week. The mysterious dream has people in it that are extremely vivid that he's never met and it instantly gets our minds to spinning as to what the hell is going on. It gets weirder from there. At a party Smith meets two of those girls whom he saw in the dream. One of them turns out to be Stella's new girlfriend and the other one is just some random girl. Smith also meets London, who ends up being his first sexual experience with a girl. Smith and London start becoming friends and the films keep getting weirder. Both Stella and Smith keep getting these weird hallucinations. Stella is totally weird out by her girlfriend whom she thinks has some special psychic powers. Smith continues to have visions which now involve men in masks trying to get him or something. In between Smith has his birthday and London treats him to a 3some with Thor's best friend. Smith also has a brief encounter with a guy on a nude beach. All this while, both him and Stella are trying to figure out what the reality is. The truth slowly starts to unfold when Smith turns 19. He finds out a website where he sees and reads about this underground cult, which is headed by his supposedly dead father and that now everyone is out to get Smith to be the new leader because the world is gonna come to an end. Last 15 minutes of the film, most secrets are revealed about all the people in Smith's life and what do they have to do with this whole cult and underground order or whatever.

Made at very high production values, the film is very very engaging because you are yourself intrigued by all thats happening in and around Smith, but by the time the movie is in final moments, it is such a huge letdown. I can't believe that the writers thought the audiences will buy this bullshit. When you have created such suspenses, drama and thrill, you should always back it up with substance but this was clearly missing. The whole explanation, nuclear weapons and the true identity of everyone around Smith was a little too much and too dumb. C'mmon as an audience we deserve better. The acting was exceptionally well fem pretty much everyone. It looked like a very polished campus drama for a long time and in fact very well done. Alas! the climax ruins it all. But in all fairness, the thrill as well could have been done so cheaply and badly. It was so easy to do all that was shown in this film as cheap thrills but thankfully the director did not resort to that.

A decent movie with some genuine moments and then it goes into a strange transformation of ridiculousness and the paranormal. (5.5/10)

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