Stop! That! Train! Review: RuPaul’s Airplane! Riff Is A Goofy Delight

Comedy is subjective, which is why some filmmakers decide to just throw everything at the wall and see what sticks. Especially in the spoof sub-genre, pumping out a deluge of gags can make up for their general lack of thematic depth and ensure that at least some land. The trick is, with this approach, the silliness needs to be fully over the top and very broad.

The new Scary Movie struggled in this regard. There are plenty of jokes, but so many of them are rooted in dated references, or guided by specific cultural elements that make them quickly feel dated. The hit rate was a lot lower as a result. By contrast, Stop! That! Train! has a lot better luck.

It might be because the film, directed by Adam Shankman, takes a dozen comedic swings a minute and leans far more into being silly for the sake of silly instead of trying to comment on genre conventions. It might be because the cast are uniformly game, with the goofy turns all centered on a single throughline instead of being divided by distinct pop culture riffs. It might even just be because Stop! That! Train!, meant directly to evoke classic spoofs like Airplane!, simply finds a better rhythm with its celeb cameos and wacky bits.

Whatever the secret ingredient is, the result is a movie that is non-stop hilarious and unapologetically goofy. It may not be deep, it may not be compelling, but it is silly enough to be great.

Stop! That! Train! Knows Nails Exactly What It’s Going For

RuPaul as president in the oval office in Stop! That! Train!

Stop! That! Train! is a deliberate throwback to the spoofs of generations past, with the cast and creatives doing a great job of recreating that “go for broke” style that makes movies like Airplane! so entertaining. Functionally, the two films are even fairly similar, with each focusing on the crew and passengers of a massive vehicle.

Ginger Minj and Jujubee star as Tess and DeeDee, best friends and stewardesses who sneak onboard a luxury train as “new staff members.” However, when the train is revealed to be going through a massive storm, the pair – along with Rachel Bloom’s put-upon weather analyst Donna Dusk and RuPaul’s President Judy Gagwell – do their best to keep the train from crashing.

Any semblance of stakes is purposefully undercut by the constant gags, with a solid mix of visual beats and strange asides. There are musical numbers about distracting the passengers, flashbacks to Judy Gagwell’s time in the US Train Force, and a scene-stealing Matt Rogers as a Presidential Press Secretary who will not hesitate to shoot someone.

The hit-to-miss ratio is fairly strong, thanks to the committed performances of the cast, who go big and broad in the best way possible. Some jokes lean into the absurd, while others go for the quirky bit of wordplay or take a surprisingly macabre turn that just makes them funnier.

Multiple Jokes Per Minute Make Stop! That! Train! A Delight

The two protagonists looking concerned in Stop! That! Train!

While some jokes will only really work if you know the world of RuPaul’s Drag Race, even the uninitiated (like this writer) will get enough of the broad humor for Stop! That! Train! to be an enjoyable experience. It also helps that Ginger and Jujubee find just enough emotional authenticity in the friendship between Tess and DeeDee to give the film a functional core.

That’s not to say there’s much of a genuine throughline beyond their friendship and the challenges it faces, whether that be Tess’ newfound popularity on the train or DeeDee’s obsessive attraction with one of the conductors. It can’t quite nail the balance of character and goofiness that the best spoofs manage, leaving it a bit aimless at times. Luckily, the script by Christina Friel and Connor Wright has enough awareness of disaster movie tropes to keep things moving along at a good clip. It’s also not necessarily the most ambitious film on a technical level, but that lends it part of its charm.

Stop! That! Train! is the kind of goofball comedy audiences simply don’t get anymore. While the third act does struggle a bit, because of the need to actually pay off various plot beats and story set-ups, the cast keep the laughs flowing enough that the movie remains enjoyable. It’s light on its feet and consistently entertaining, even if that weightless element keeps it from really reaching the heights of its genre. Still, especially as a modern showcase of how the spoof is still alive, Stop! That! Train! does a solid job of getting laughs out of the audience.

Stop! That! Train! releases in theaters nationwide on Friday, June 12.