‘The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’

The comic pizazz of Stephan Elliott’s popular 1994 film about drag performers trekking across the Australian desert certainly has an addictive quality to it. But it also comes with a built-in hangover: a strain of conventional sentimentality that would not be inappropriate on the Disney Channel, plus a regrettable predictability in its adventures. It’s definitely at its best when its trio of performers--Hugo Weaving (pictured), Guy Pearce and Oscar-nominated Terence Stamp--are out there with a lip-synched song in their hearts. Stamp is the film’s major surprise, gracefully convincing as a transsexual with enough hauteur for an entire royal family (Showtime Monday at 8 p.m.).