Stop! That! Train! | Official Trailer | Bleecker Street<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nPOSITIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Contrary to the preconceived unfavorable feelings conjured during a boisterously grating trailer taken entirely out of context, Stop! That! Train! is surprisingly a refreshingly endearing throwback to the satirical spoof comedies of the 70’s and 80’s that I grew up idolizing, elevated by the same kind of off-beat zaniness from Shankman’s manically eccentric direction that he’s used to cement a career as one of the most creatively versatile filmmakers of the past twenty-five years. While his newest film is undeniably far from the unmatched heights of some of his greatest achievements, such as A Walk To Remember, or Bedtime Stories, it’s a charmingly infectious romper of queer joy resistance in the face of escalating political stress, without a single semblance of shame to the self-aware gags it enacts on interpretive audiences, the material of which feels around fifty percent effective in garnering some kind of instinctive reaction to the deliveries that I was experiencing. When the comedy works, it speaks levels to the absorbing quality of lifted authenticity that Shankman has derived from the many spoof comedies like Airplane and The Naked Gun, that it feels inspired by, with clever articulation of visual sight gags, editing trickery, and exaggeratedly energetic deliveries used to not only illustrate an anything goes kind of possibility to the randomness of what transpires between these wild card characters, but also some underlining social commentary aimed at the ridiculousness of our current political administration, without anything feeling remotely preachy or heavy-handed to take away from the subtlety of how it’s spontaneously delivered, helping to capably bridge the gap of advantageous entertainment value for straight white male audiences like me, whom the film so evidently isn’t aimed towards. On top of some legitimately satisfying satire in its inevitable doomsday scenario, the film also utilizes every spare cent of its 20 million dollar budget to flourish stunning style in the conveying outline of this multi-car bullet train, featuring sociological purpose in the detailing of its decor that helps articulate and isolate the two financial worlds of upper class elitists and the poverty-stricken disadvantaged. Everything from the rich vibrancy of color coordinated set designs, to the in-sync threads of the uniformed wardrobe designs, gives this extravagant route of traveling the lived-in kind of flashiness and pizazz that makes it feel fantastically elaborate in its privileged prestige, in the most ridiculously frivolous ways imaginable, all the while exuding some stunning cinematographic framing choices for Luka Bazeli, who makes the most of the opportunity to inject eye-fetching flare to internalized sequences playing opposite of some intentionally hokey C.G.I schemes. While this unfortunate aspect stands out cheaply like a sore thumb in the aforementioned trailers that showcase it, the lifelessly unnatural motions of establishing train shots and storm saturated scenery only plays to the surreal strengths of Shankman’s exaggerated directions, helping to breed this campy silliness to the detectability of the atmosphere, that immediately spells out how nothing about this film should be approached at a seriously stern level, even with the surmised stakes of crucially impending doom driving the entirety of the expansive narrative. This maintained focus in projecting a cohesive narrative already makes it monumentally superior to last week’s Scary Movie, especially when it seamlessly incorporates familiar pop references justifiably in the depths of its corresponding character development, but beyond that proves immensely that ample time and creative effort were paid towards constructing influential impact over the presiding importance of Tess and DeeDee’s newfound journey as persisting protagonists, instead of utilizing these gags as individually adjacent acts, and it makes the script from Christina Friel and Connor Wright feel honed in with the kind of narrative evolution that legitimately appraises this in feeling like a movie, rather than a loosely structured skit showcase. Lastly, while nearly everybody assembled to this eagerly committed ensemble flourish fiercely in their larger than life characters, it’s clearly Ginger Minj and Jujubee who make the most of their limitless opportunities as the story’s centralized protagonists, fleshing out an impeccably endearing chemistry between their friendship dynamic that essentially serves as the heartbeat component to the movie’s well-being. When these two share the screen simultaneously, they bounce responsively off of one another in ways that mutually elevate the performances and correspondence of the shared material between them, but even when isolated during respective arcs of individual value during the second act, they each maintain enough captivating screen presence and dreamer’s ambition to indulge empathetically in the determinative drive of their newfound wealth, leaving little to chance in executing such wildly conductive personalities, in ways that truly makes their respective turns memorable. Beyond the dynamic duo at the movie’s forefront, the film is also blessed with an abundance of celebrity cameos who each lend themselves vulnerably to the extent of Shankman’s depravity, with my favorites being between Sarah Michelle Gellar’s receiving of mean-spirited gags dissecting her unfamiliar celebrity, or Chris Parnell’s train conductor being an ailing victim of a disastrous marriage and irresponsible parenting, the likes of which are explored in several gut-busting recaps of regretful days gone by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEGATIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the inferior side of the movie’s articulated comedy, the gags work significantly less when channeled in lingeringly long-winded sequences that indulge incessantly on the increasing irritability of an intended punchline, without the kind of required editing to maintain its prominence for pacing throughout an unambitious 87 minute engagement that eventually catches up to the experience. While the film doesn’t exactly become tediously sluggish during its lesser effective second half, it does feel like an overwhelming majority of the gags by that point are repeated from where they initially spawned somewhere during the first, and considering Shankman’s direction levels so much dramatic underlining to the intensity and urgency of the initiated conflict, the ending falls flat in a forgettable haze that goes down unsatisfying in its abrupt resolving, where some more consistent comedy could’ve worked wonders in fighting back against the notion that this film eventually feels like it’s slipping away from where it once started so prominently. On top of comedic imbalance, while the queer cast and celebrity cameos each do a remarkable job of emulating the kind of off-screen direction from Shankman, accordingly, there’s one glaring weakness among the assorted ensemble who feels like a charisma vacuum to the intended material, each time he delivers with intention, leaving his work feeling significantly detracting in the ways he fails to approach it with any kind of palpable personality to his character. The person in question is M3gan and M3gan 2.0 actor, Brian Jordan Alvarez, and while I thoroughly enjoyed his work in those respective horror installments, and his turn here is relegated to more of the beautiful and bumbling buffoon love interest of Jujubee’s DeeDee, his squandering of the accommodating material serves as a result of a lack of sharpness and conviction in his intended deliveries, leaving so many of his internalized responses feeling counterproductive to the appealing design of the character, even against the backdrop of a movie that downright refuses to ever take itself too seriously. And finally, while remaining on the subject of the screenplay, there’s a two-hander of a feeling by the midway point of the movie that sees our centralized train arc splitting crucial screen time with an on-ground correspondent left to rescue the passengers safely, and while many of the disaster movies that this film spoofs carry with them these outsider perspectives that serve as a device to resolve conflicts conveniently and accordingly, the ones utilized here intrude far too often on the structural integrity of its outline to justify its inclusion, offering far too much levity away from the urgency of the conflict. Even in a satirical spoof, the atmospheric ingredients still abide by the rules that the movie establishes for itself, and considering there’s an escapable avenue of refresh to deviate away from the plot, whenever it becomes distinguishable from its intended humor, it underwhelms what little tension and suspense it’s able to muster for the engagement, in turn feeling like excessively increasing padding to a runtime that would be as equally effective at 75 minutes, without losing anything significant in the trimmed fat of an indulgingly obese story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OVERALL
Stop! That! Train! is a raucously propulsive and unapologetically gay kind of self-aware satirical spoof comedy that conducts its creative engine with the kind of absorbing authenticity for exaggerated gags that gave birth to a new breed of comedy during the 70’s and 80’s subgenre golden age. While the film occasionally loses steam while carrying the weight of excessive arcs and a lackluster love interest during its second half, the adult-emphasized and zanily silly surrealism of its eccentric antics allows the film to remain on tracks and chugging to its intended 87-minute destination, offering drag-queen depravity that fires at a mile per minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Grade: 6.5 or C<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Directed By Adam Shankman Starring – RuPaul, Ginger Minj, Jujubee The Plot – Follows best friends Tess (Ginger Minj) and DeeDee (Jujubee), train stewardesses who trade their dreary shifts on the Stank Rail for the glitzy Glamazonian Express. When a catastrophic “Stormaganza” threatens to derail the high-speed train and crash it into Los Angeles, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9729"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9731,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9729\/revisions\/9731"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}