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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...

Hard To Give Up (Mandarin)

Don't let the very cute poster fool you. The direction of this otherwise decent script was really bad. The film could have been something because it has all necessary elements to make it a good gay romantic ilm, but it feels that the makers mid was all over the place. The first 5 minutes of the film which has upcoming scenes intersected to give us an idea of what's coming is so badly done and edited that it gives you a headache at the onset. You are thoroughly confused because you feel three parallel stories are going on, until you realize its only opening credits and the story hasn't even started.

A painter has an upcoming exhibition and is looking for an inspiration. He finds one in a young boy Er Meng, who desperately needs money and agrees to be the nude model. The painter finds himself getting more anymore attracted to the young boy, leaving his agent, the girl, bit miffed. She is secretly in love with the painter. She has never confessed her feelings but she is jealous of the young boy. Er Meng's father owes a lot of money to some bad guys so he takes up odd jobs in a cafe, house cleaner etc with the painter's help. But he still gets beaten up because of non payment and the painter then takes care of him and loves him. The bad guys even pimp Er Meng to an old man who nearly rapes him to recover their money and our painter arrives like a hero to save the day just in time.

Seriously, the film made absolutely no sense. Both the guys were good looking and could act alright , but when you an't connect to a character and know what the motivations behind some of their actions are, how do you put that across on the screen. In any such situations I would always blame the director, because they should know their job better. This film seemed like someone trying to do a school project and waste some of their money. The interactions and relationships were pretty all over the place. And then there were some side actors, who had some of their own story going on which made absolutely no sense whatsoever. The ending of this film was another sore point. Overall, this film was an absolute absolute waste of time. The only good thing is that it lasted only about 70 minutes. Contrary to the title, I'd say its very easy to give up on this film. Avoid at all costs (1/10)

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