Stomp the Yard (2007)

Stomp the Yard falls somewhere between You Got Served and Drumline among films where people bust a move as a form of dissing each other, while their opponents roll their eyes and scoff. In fact, it's so utterly conventional, the only way to meaningfully discuss it is to compare it to other films like it. Those who don't expect anything more than that, however, will probably like Stomp the Yard just fine. The key in films like this is to find a dramatic lead who can actually do the dance moves, and in former choreographer Columbus Short, they've made an adequate choice. Short holds the film together pretty well and demonstrates a solid range of emotions. The presence of Harry Lennix as his uncle is always welcome, as well. Still, there isn't a single surprise throughout the running time of Stomp the Yard. Among the genres whose most generic templates it follows are the fish-out-of-water movie, the life-on-the-big-campus movie, the overcoming-parental-disapproval movie, and of course, the David-vs.-Goliath-competition movie, which pretty much describes every competition movie out there. Perhaps the form of the competition -- "stepping," or the more institutionalized and synchronized version of street dancing -- is supposed to set the movie apart. But Stomp the Yard had the misfortune of coming out just after a whole spate of similar movies, none of which can hold a candle to the electrifying documentary treatment of the subject matter in Rize. Generally, Stomp the Yard is competent enough to qualify as a crowd pleaser. But it doesn't add anything new to the conversation, and perhaps more crucially, it doesn't pass on a contagious sense of the spine-tingling excitement of this dance form. The moves have had the life edited out of them in search of a pervasive middle ground. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide