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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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Bugie Rosse (Italian) [The Final Scoop]

By Golu
A journalist goes undercover to investigate a serial killer case in the gay scene. Soon he finds himself in CRUISING territory. Sounds familiar? Of course, the1980 Al Pacino film dealt with this subject. I am not privy if this film was a remake or something but this Italian film which came out in 1993, is just about a decent watch. Even if we forget the production quality, the movie just doesn't offer enough thrills or tense moments that would have made this film an exciting watch.

Gay men are being murdered ruthlessly and investigative journalist is trying to figure out the case. He has a beautiful wife who is an air hostess and his best friend is a magistrate who keeps asking him to help police with investigation rather than working on his own. He starts cursing in search of serial killer with his camera woman trying to get footage, but murders keep happening and somehow Marco is always near or have met the men who keep getting killed. One day he meets an enigmatic male hustler Andre, Marco questions his sexuality. The two men do it, even though Marco pretends otherwise be asleep. Soon Marco starts to use information provided by Andre to find the killer but the more he gets into the investigation, the deeper he himself keeps becoming the prime suspect. Meanwhile his wife thinks her husband is having an affair. Finally when the identity of the killer is revealed, it does come as a surprise but I also wasn't surprised because by this point we all have started to assume patterns of such murder thrillers. 

Marco uses an internet chat room for hook-ups which seems way ahead of its time for 1993 and the gay world depicted is true-to-life in other ways, too -the pick up parks, porno theaters, discos, and gyms are all typical trysting places and Marco meets a wide variety of gay men (mostly married) ranging from a restroom pervert to a closeted senator, all of whom are handsome and none of whom are effeminate in the slightest. Despite all this, the film struggles to hold my attention. The characters were just not charming enough, but for such roles, you need a charming actor. Sadly Marco didnt fit the bill. Although I should say that Andre did have the hot mystery look. The wife just barely said anything, regularly skipping work to follow her husband around and then random sex scenes would show up. The lack of focus on sleaze in favor of plot creates serious pacing issues but there are some elements in here which almost makes it worth watching alone for. So we get the horniest, creepiest and most enthusiastic peeping tom in cinema history plus the most obvious hidden camera in cinema history as well. And the ending with wife showing up in short hair waiting for her husband to pick her up is even more messed up. Is Marco now gay or what and what is the wife trying to prove? Even for its time, this film was weakly acted, poorly shot and features an underwhelming score. The film could’ve been so much more if they had actually focused on the queer themes and made it more polished. (3.5/10)
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