Stomp the Yard
I’m sorry I haven’t reviewed much lately. I’ve been busy perfecting my moves out back and have been vigorously and rigorously stomping the yard. So it was with great pleasure that I was able to finally check out the 2007 Sylvain White film Stomp the Yard. You’ll get to know Sylvain White next when he directs the 2009 video game-based film, Castlevania. I can’t even begin to tell you how I feel about that one.
Nevertheless, it’s White who is at the helm for this dance-a-thon of epic proportions. Originally, Stomp the Yard was supposed to be called Steppin’, but after the 2006 film Step Up came out, the producers thought that audiences might get confused and so Steppin’ went Stomp the Yard in a heartbeat. Disaster averted and the intelligent film audiences to which this seminal work was geared towards would not enter the theatre confused.
Stomp the Yard follows DJ Williams (Columbus Short) as he heads to a black university to get a higher education. He is a krumper and lost his brother (Chris Brown) in a shooting after a dance-off went bad. Burdened by guilt, DJ heads to Truth University begrudgingly and starts to study hard at…something. He is instantly smitten as he runs into April Palmer (Meagan Good). Trying to get in her pants is hard work, but DJ is persistent.
Eventually, his tracking of April Palmer leads him to the courtyard when he experiences members of a fraternity “stomping the yard.” He is captivated somewhat, but heads back to his pursuit of April. After nearly getting in a fight with April’s boyfriend, Grant (Darrin Henson), DJ decides that he wants to step or stomp or whatever after all. He is courted by two frats that know how good he is, joins one, and has to help his team win the tournament. DJ also continues to pursue April and the situation becomes complicated when April’s father is revealed as the school’s provost. Fun times and lots of steppin’ carry us through to the finale.
Stomp the Yard is predictable, boring, and completely lacking in any natural storyline arc. Events of significance are brushed over in favour of lesser events. This isn’t just done stylistically, but rather appears to be a failure of the director to know what scenes are important and what scenes simply aren’t. Characters flop in and out of the film with ridiculous inconsistency and there are far too many supporting actors to care about.
Because of this mishmash, any cohesion to the story is lost or non-existent. Instead of caring about the blossoming relationship between the gorgeous April and DJ, we simply are given major moments in their bond as afterthoughts. The dancing isn’t even centre stage for long, as most of the scenes, save for the last one, are brushed aside and shot with such little care and attention to detail that it’s hard to see what the various performers are doing.
The dancing really isn’t overly impressive. I’ve gotten more out of one episode of Randy Jackson’s America’s Best Dance Crew than I did out of the entire choreographed-and-edited mess of Stomp the Yard. The performances are weak and often consist of dancers simply flailing around or spinning. The final “trick” to win the competition is shown for a fraction of a second and the majority of the dance sequences are simply bland.
Overall, Stomp the Yard is a bland entry in the sort of “teen dance-off” type movies. I haven’t seen Step Up yet, but I can’t imagine it being worse than this one. The characters are boring, the storyline is muddled and hidden from view, and the performances are unremarkable in every way. The only good thing is Meagan Good. Go figure.
Trailer:
