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:fresh:
I loved "Stmp the Yard," and I was expecting it to suck. I thought the acting would be bad, the danciing embarrassig and the plot pathetic. However, the actong was not all that bad, the dancing was amazing and the plot was just okay. This movie could have been much worse, but totally pulled it off. LOVE IT!

January 12, 2007

If "Stomp the Yard" held itself to just being a movie about unique dancing, it might have worked as mindless eye candy. That would have sufficed since most audience members will be paying to see just that. But like last fall's "Crossover," about a specialized league of urban street ball, "Stomp the Yard" gets bogged down by a stale plot that deflates it of energy and interest.

That's not to say character and drama should take a backseat to movies about peculiar kinds of physicality, it shouldn't, but perhaps that's a better idea when the plot is so played. Here, again, is the story of an athlete unable to recognize there's no "I" in "team." And, again, through love and new life experiences, he discovers what really matters.

Yawn.

"You Got Served" (2004), also about street dancing, got away with this premise because it was fresher, edgier and tighter. Its running time was only 95 minutes, compared to the 116 of "Stomp the Yard." Both movies are similar in structure, right down to a final dance-off, but "You Got Served" knew that audiences cared mostly about seeing dancing and provided it in heavy doses. In "Stomp the Yard," the dancing becomes secondary to a hackneyed conflict.

D.J. (Columbus Short) is a young "stomp" dancer from Los Angeles who makes a cross-country trek to attend Truth University in Atlanta, Georgia. College doesn't interest him so much, but he feels the need to fulfill the dreams of his brother Duron (Chris Brown). Early in the movie, Duron is gunned down by a member of a rival dance group and D.J. feels responsible since it was he who insisted they compete. When he arrives at Truth, D.J. no longer considers himself a stomper and so hides his dance gloves in his desk drawer.

His attitude changes when he spots the beautiful April (Meagan Good), who's the girlfriend of Grant (Darrin Henson), an important brother at the Gamma fraternity. Gamma has won the past seven national stomp competitions against their rival, Theta. After D.J. shows off his dance moves for April at a local club, both frats see D.J. as a potential pledge and way to secure the championship.

A forbidden love ensues between D.J. and April. It's forbidden because April's father (Allan Louis) is also the provost and he has a complicated history with D.J.'s Aunt (Valarie Pettiford) and Uncle (Harry J. Lennix). This leads to the old "you're not good enough for my daughter" speech, and so on and so forth. Director Sylvain White only interrupts the conventional plot with scenes of the two frats practicing dance routines, which aren't all that interesting to watch in the first place.

The dance scenes are shot and edited in such a way that make them appear disjointed and scrambled. I didn't get a real sense of what goes into this particular kind of dancing. Instead of simply filming the actors perform some amazing moves, the filmmakers manipulate the images with shutter and frame speeds. Why couldn't they just let dancers dance without any help from the camera or editing software?

Given the premise and marketing campaign, I didn't go into "Stomp the Yard" with high expectations. What I did expect was a clothesline plot as part of a movie about cool dancing. What I got was so-so dancing as part of a greater mundane plot.

9:00 pm - Showcase Cinemas Easfield Mall

Screw the State of the Union. Stomp the Yard.

:rotten: What was the name of that other movie, the one that had the dancing with the weak side-story that only had a few good moments the whole time? Bring it...Step Up...oh that's right, You Got Served. Setting aside the fact that these are essentially the same two movies Stomp the Yard has a few cooler dance moves along with...well, that's actually about it. As advertised this movie has some cool dance scenes and music to match but the rest of the time when the characters are not on the dance floor they have to fill the time with other stories that are so lacking in development it's amazing none of the producer's cut them during editing. There's of course the main character who over the course of two hours has several battles on his hands. The traumatic event at the start to get the ball rolling, the moving on and into a dramatic change in his life, the inevitable love story, and the typical rivelry with the-guy-who-is-dating-the-girl-he-likes-who-is-also-the-captain-of-the-rival-team. Yep, there's the main stories that occur, and yes it ends exactly how you hope and think it will end. With nothing new to offer this movie is merely a decent (barely) popcorn flick that is fun to enjoy with a large group of people but should not be taken seriously. Was is worth the time and money? Not really, maybe as a rental but nothing more. And as you're adding this flick to your Netflix queue, remember, it's Stomp the Yard not You Got Served, not that there's any difference.

:up: I never heard of this movie prior to seeing it. It was better than I thought it would be. It was predictable though.:fresh:

I went to watch this movie with my friend. She heard it was good from a friend of hers and wanted to watch it. I'm always up to watch a movie. I love how they are a nice short compact story.

Anyways I didn't have high hopes for it because it just looked like one of those movies that have pretty people in it that want to be actors.

I was really surprised how good it was. It might be from the low expectations but still. The dancing was good, the characters were pretty believiable and the plot was predictable but not in a bad way.

I would suggest this movie anyone that just wants to watch something lite. Or something to put on at a party. It has a pretty happy ending for those who want to know.

OTHER REFERENCES
Ghost Rider
Fyoder_Fish: 5/10
" directed with a minimum of imagination or originality"
RottenMoreno: 3/10
"reaches new levels of laughable dialogues and characters"
Nived84: 2/10
" all its constant failures amount to little more than boredom"


Stomp The Yard
MovieFan50: 6/10
"went on a little too long"

:p this movie is the best dance & stomping movie ever

if you go see it you'll be amazed by what you see.

There is not much to be said about this film. I saw it because I am a sucker for good choreography. I like martial arts movies for the same reason. This movie had nothing new to offer. It did have great step sequences. The plot is very bland and over done. While watching it, I felt like I had seen it somewhere before. Then I realized that I had. This is the same script they used for Drumline. Then I got to thinking, isn't this also the same script from the classic piece-of-crap-film You Got Served? I think so. I was entertained by the dancing, but the plot was something to be desired.



We open with a dance-off, like Served. We then move on to a shooting and a moving, then we are in a school setting, like Drumline. Boy meets girl. Girl has boyfriend. Boyfriend is in rival fraternity. Boy doesn't care, he will get girl, like Drumline. Boy is best dancer but gets kicked out and not allowed to compete, like Drumline. Then, and this was a real shocker, they tie in regulation with competition. I haven't seen this storyline since Drumline and You Got Served. Luckily, Boy is back and allowed to compete and lead the team to glory. Oh, and Boy gets girl.



Verdict: Don't waste your money in the theaters; it should be on DVD in about 2 months or less.

2.5/10. Cliche ridden tripe that is poorly acted, badly structured with a lot of lousy music. It's not a wonder it is in the bottom 100 movies of all time on IMDB. There really isn't much good about it. Across the board it stinks.