I really wanted to love Stop! That! Train!. On paper, it sounded like exactly my kind of movie: RuPaul, a train full of drag queens, ridiculous celebrity cameos, an impending disaster, and a spoof sensibility reaching back toward Airplane! and The Naked Gun. There are moments when it works beautifully, when the silliness clicks into place, and the cast seems to be having such a good time that you cannot help smiling along with them. The problem is that those moments never quite come often enough to sustain the entire film.
Reviewed by Allan R. Ellenberger
Directed by Adam Shankman, whose credits include Hairspray and A Walk to Remember, and written by Christina Friel and Connor Wright, Stop! That! Train! is a 90-minute action-comedy built around one gloriously absurd premise. Best friends Tess and DeeDee, played by Ginger Minj and Jujubee, are train stewardesses working for a decidedly downmarket rail line called Stank Rail. When that job disappears, the two land aboard the much more glamorous Glamazonian Express, where they immediately find themselves surrounded by snooty first-class attendants, eccentric passengers, and enough attitude to power the train without electricity.
Then comes the disaster. A massive weather event called “Stormaganza” threatens the high-speed train, its brakes fail, and what begins as a drag-infused workplace comedy turns into a spoof disaster movie. Tess and DeeDee must join forces with the very people who have been looking down on them. Meanwhile, the crisis eventually reaches the White House, where RuPaul plays President Judy Gagwell with exactly the kind of oversized authority you would expect. The plot is intentionally ridiculous, and you shouldn't expect realism. This is a movie in which even the name of the train is a punchline.
That should have been enough for me. I love this kind of humor when it is done well—the rapid-fire nonsense, visual gags, double entendres, exaggerated characters, and jokes that are so stupid they somehow become inspired. Stop! That! Train! certainly throws enough of them at the screen. Some land very well. Others sit there. And because the film rarely slows down, a weak joke is often followed immediately by another weak joke before either one has had time to die gracefully.
Ginger Minj and Jujubee are the heart of the picture, and both handle the material well. Tess and DeeDee have a believable affection for one another, which gives the movie more warmth than the premise might suggest. The film works best when it remembers that underneath all the camp, these are two friends trying to prove themselves. Critics noticed this too. The Hollywood Reporter praised the chemistry between Ginger Minj and Jujubee and identified their underdog friendship as the film's emotional center. At the same time, Variety found the movie surprisingly accessible even beyond the Drag Race audience.
RuPaul, of course, knows exactly what movie he is in. As President Gagwell, he plays everything at just the right level of absurdity, never pretending for a second that the character belongs in the real world. His campaign slogan alone—“She Fun”—tells you everything you need to know. He gets some of the movie’s best bits, including Oval Office nonsense that plays as a parody sketch stretched into presidential theater. The Guardian was considerably more enthusiastic than I was, calling the film a “madcap riot” and singling RuPaul out as one of its strongest comic forces.
The supporting cast is almost ridiculously crowded. Brooke Lynn Hytes, Symone, Marcia Marcia Marcia, Monét X Change and Latrice Royale add more Drag Race energy. At the same time, the non-drag cameos include Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Joel McHale, Chris Parnell, Charo, Michelle Visage, Nicole Richie, Jerry O’Connell, Missi Pyle, Natasha Leggero, Brian Jordan Alvarez, and others. Some appearances are little more than extended punchlines, but that is part of the fun.
One running gag I particularly enjoyed involved Sarah Michelle Gellar, playing a version of herself who desperately does not want to be recognized while, in fact, nobody recognizes her at all. It is a wonderfully silly idea and exactly the kind of joke I expected the entire movie to deliver. That it remains memorable also points to my main disappointment: too many other bits lack that same comic snap.
Critics were divided on precisely that question. Metacritic currently gives the film a score of 59, indicating mixed or average reviews. The New York Times responded very positively to Shankman’s blend of broad spoof and affectionate camp. At the same time, IndieWire thought the joke-to-laugh ratio was inconsistent and noted that the movie plays best for viewers already immersed in RuPaul’s Drag Race. The Associated Press similarly found that while not every gag succeeds, enough do to keep the movie entertaining. At the other end of the spectrum, TheWrap dismissed it as a cheap comedy that was not funny enough.
Audience reaction has been just as mixed. Metacritic’s user scores have hovered around the middle, with some viewers embracing the movie as wonderfully stupid fun and others finding it exhausting or too dependent on Drag Race references. Online fan discussion reflects the same split: some viewers have called it a blast and compared it affectionately to a very gay version of Airplane!, while others have found the humor too broad or too much like an extended Drag Race acting challenge.
My own reaction falls somewhere in the middle. The performances are fine. Ginger Minj, Jujubee and RuPaul all understand how to play camp without winking so aggressively that the joke collapses. The celebrity cameos are fun to spot. The production is colorful and energetic. There are jokes I laughed at. Visual gags made me grin. I kept waiting for the movie to become consistently funny, and it never quite did.
Another problem with movies built around nonstop spoof is that if every line tries to be a joke, eventually none of them feels special. The classic comedies this film clearly admires knew how to vary the rhythm. Stop! That! Train! Sometimes seems afraid to let a scene breathe. When the jokes land, the pacing works. When they are not, the movie can feel longer than its roughly 90-minute running time.
Theatrically, the film never really caught fire. Released in the United States on June 12, 2026, it struggled commercially despite generally respectable critical notices, earning only a few million dollars worldwide against a reported budget in the low tens of millions. After its theatrical and digital run, however, the movie found a much larger platform: Stop! That! Train! began streaming on Netflix in the United States on September 20, 2026. That is the ideal place for it.
At home, without the expectation that comes with buying a movie ticket, its silliness may play better. And for fans of RuPaul, Drag Race, Ginger Minj, Jujubee and the many queens who turn up along the way, there is certainly enough here to make it worth watching. The movie knows exactly who its audience is and does not apologize for catering to them.
I wish it had made me laugh more. I went in hoping for a wild, hilarious train wreck in the best possible sense. What I got was an amiable, colorful, occasionally very funny ride that never quite reached full speed. Still, if RuPaul and the Drag Race universe are your thing, climb aboard. You may enjoy the journey far more than I did.
Check back tomorrow on The Hollywoodland Revue for the story of Wallace McCutcheon Jr. — Hollywood’s Forgotten Tragedy. Once part of a pioneering film family, his promising life took a far darker turn. It is a haunting chapter of early Hollywood history that has been largely forgotten.
If you’ve seen Stop! That! Train!, I’d love to know whether it worked for you. Did the campy humor hit the mark, or did you also find yourself wishing it were funnier? Please take a moment to leave a comment, rate the review, and share it with other movie fans—especially anyone who follows RuPaul and the Drag Race universe. Your comments, ratings, and shares help The Hollywoodland Revue reach more readers and keep the conversation going.
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