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Stop! That! Train!

By Golu
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...
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Naked Dragon

By Golu
There are not many gay thrillers out there, so I was actually looking forward to seeing this film, but I felt very let down. They underplayed the thriller part and instead focused more on the gay relationship. Normally I wont complain about such a thing, but the whole culmination of the serial killer angle was so sudden and random, that its hard to digest.

David Harris is a black cop with LAPD and is secretly gay. One day he is called in a murder scene where the body is mutiliated. The case is taken over by FBI because it apparently falls in a similar pattern of other murders that have happened in recent past. Enter Robert, a psychic, brought in by FBI to help them nab the killer. His psychic powers are actually psychology and behavioral analysis; and very soon he figures that David is gay and makes a move on him. They very soon start a secret relationship while one after the other more and more bodies start showing up. The victims are mostly gay asian men. Robert tells David that this reported killer has murdered 20 victims in 20 days in 2 different cities. Robert and David alongwith 2 FBI detectives keep looking for the killer and during the process Robert keeps getting in dangerous situations because he feels that the killer is somewhere close and is playing a cat and mouse game. After almost risking his life twice, the FBI finally catches the killer and David kills him in an encounter to save Robert's life and the two men profess their love for each other.

The story is simple yet the characters have no graph at all to them. We know nothing about the lives of David and Robert. They just randomly meet and very quickly start this passionate romantic relationship. This feels a little odd. Also the serial killer angle and the romance didn't go much hand in hand. We are never told why the killer is killing, how he is killing, psychic behind it or other reasons. They just magically find the killer using a psychic and bravo, he is dead. Its too just too convenient of an ending. If the focus was more on the gay relationship, even in that we see three full on sex scenes between them but nothing much besides that. I think the movie was made on a very low budget because we never see the murders or the bodies and never media presence. You can tell the budget was tight. The performances were also strictly average. Almost every character talks slow. The urgency when a murder happens is never felt. It felt more like a stage play acting rather than a film. The 2 leads however were both alright looking but had no chemistry at all. There is just not enough conflict here. The cop is closeted gay but why in closet. None of his team members or anyone else ever makes a gay joke or comment, so why leave it like that. Many more questions like this still linger in my mind and I feel a bit cheated by the sudden ending of the film.

It feels movie was shot while actors were just reading through the lines and rehearsing and that was then decided as a final product. Disappointing. (3.5/10)
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