Long, long ago, in what now seems like a cultural galaxy far, far away, TV commercials were not the glossy, big-budgeted endeavors they are today. One that forever sticks in my mind was a 30-second blurb for an insecticide where a person is stomping on the floor, trying to kill a bunch of pests. A voice then states, "That's no way to kill roaches."
While certainly nothing witty, the saying etched itself onto my young psyche, particularly after I later got big laughs at repeatedly borrowing the line to comment on anyone I saw (on TV or elsewhere) who was dancing (especially tap) or otherwise doing something with their feet.
It's probably a good thing I outgrew what became my punch line, not just because it would have grown a bit more than tiresome, but also because I would have been yelling it out every few minutes in "Stomp the Yard." While that might sound like a comedy about killing moles or adopting an alternative to mowing one's lawn, it's really a drama wrapped around a real thing known as stepping. That's the organized activity, predominantly practiced in black colleges and based on something known as African Boot Dance, where groups of men or women stomp, clap and perform various moves and maneuvers in unison, often in competition.
In the film, Columbus Short plays a young man who participates in underground competitions of freestyle dancing. When familial tragedy strikes, he ends up across the country, living with his relatives and attending a black college where said activity is more highly organized and the source of both collegiate pride and competition.
For an effort showcasing a dance style that's all about expressing creativity and imagination, the film is decidedly a by the books offering. When the dancing and dance-offs aren't occurring, the story -- adapted from Gregory Ramon Anderson's screenplay by Robert Adetuyi -- follows the troubled outsider playbook to a T.
After the aforementioned tragedy strikes, our upset protagonist, DJ (a charismatic Short), ends up as an angry fish out of water character. He initially clashes with most everyone else, and doesn't want to participate in either of the fictitious university's two main fraternities, although the sight of a pretty coed (Meagan Good) does pique his interest in socializing.
However, with her boyfriend naturally being one of the frat guys, tension arises, and it isn't long before the dirty laundry, skeletons and more come out of the closet just as the teen starts to make and feel a difference in his life. From a pure drama standpoint, it's nothing you haven't seen before and there's nary a surprise to be found anywhere in such regards.
That is, except for something akin to a "Top Gun" element where the various young men bond through their collective, and near military type, step training, practice and more. Such material occasionally borders on being goofy as some of the characters take said activity so seriously that it occasionally nearly becoming a caricature, but for the most part it works for what it is.
Which is why it's too bad director Sylvain White apparently feels obligated to present the step competition moments as if filtered through a music video on speed. While I understand the filmmaker trying to soup up the footage with quick edits, nonstop camera movement, and even moments where the shots have been designed to replicate as well as enhance the visual and sonic impact of said footwork, it's all done to such an extreme that such directorial "enhancements" quickly become annoying and unnecessary.
Just as is the case when watching over-edited martial arts films, the cry is to knock it off so that we can see what these people really can do (all of which makes one think such over-direction might also be present to cover up some possible talent inadequacies).
Even so, it's still fairly entertaining stuff, certainly far more so than the melodrama that oozes to the surface in the film's third act involving the protagonist, his new girlfriend, her dad the university provost, and his former girlfriend and the guy who stole her away from him. Whew, if that doesn't sound like a soap opera, it certainly starts to play out like one.
But then the kids start stomping and clapping, resulting in the obligatory grand finale showdown. It's clearly nothing new -- see also films such as "Drumline" for nearly the same plot -- but once the stepping starts, you'll be hard-pressed to stop your toes from tapping. The roaches had better watch out. "Stomp the Yard" rates as a 4 out of 10.
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