Stop! That! Train!      Director: Adam Shankman Cert: 15AGenre: ComedyStarring: RuPaul Charles, Ginger Minj, Jujubee, Brooke Lynn Hytes, Symone, Marty Lauter, Latrice Royale, Rachel Bloom, Matt Rogers, Sarah Michelle Gellar Running Time: 1 hr 31 minsSomewhere, Leslie Nielsen is smiling. Stop! That! Train! is a 90-minute drag comedy, set in the RuPaul’s Drag Race universe, that puts two lowly train hostesses at the controls of a runaway luxury express headed towards an apocalyptic storm.Tess (Ginger Minj) and DeeDee (Jujubee), longtime pals working for the soon-to-be defunct Stank Rail, improvise their way on to the Glamazonian Express, where former hostess-school bullies rule the roost.Here come the disaster-movie beats.When the train’s brakes fail and a (checks notes) “stormaganza” closes in on it, the unlikely heroines become the United States’ last hope (the US being a nation presided over by RuPaul – what an upgrade).Directed by Adam Shankman and written by Christina Friel and Connor Wright, the film borrows heavily from Airplane! and Naked Gun: straight-faced calamities, daft cutaways, elaborate puns whose silliness is the entire point. The material works best when it leans into deadpan and visual incongruity. One committed gag involves a magazine devoted to, well, conductors’ “physiques”. Another favourite recurring phrase: “Give it to me straight! Now give it to me gay!”The cast is a full-on charm offensive. Minj’s Tess is compellingly plucky, while Jujubee plays DeeDee’s cluelessness with disarming sincerity. RuPaul, as President Judy Gagwell, marries political solemnity, Mars Attacks! styling and end-of-pier timing. The starry cast includes numerous Drag Race alumni and self-deprecating turns from Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jerry O’Connell. The production’s deliberately make-do aesthetic could make-do better. Some sets and effects have the resourcefulness of a drag show, constructing glamour from whatever feathers and fur are available. But the hideous AI backdrops are a disappointing substitute for painted matte backdrops, rear projection and theatrical artifice. Too often the visual effects make you feel as if you’re trapped in a “Rusical” rendition of the Harlan Ellison story I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.No matter. The performers keep this peculiar train moving. Its flimsy, good-natured comedy succeeds as a feature-length drag-acting challenge.Shantay, you stay. In cinemas from Friday, August 21st