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They should just call this one You Got Served Again.

Columbus Short stars as DJ - a dancer from Los Angeles with great moves, but a tragic past.  He has gone off to Atlanta to attend Truth University (a fictional college I believe is patterned after Morehouse and Spelman Colleges in Atlanta) and get a fresh start on life, but he’s having trouble fitting in.  In just a few days, he has made enemies with one of the leading frats on campus, and put the moves on someone else’s girlfriend, April (Meagan Good).  However, people have noticed DJ can dance anyone and everyone off the floor, and the frats are recruiting him to join their prestigious and competitive step teams.  As you can imagine, when DJ merges his street moves with their traditional steps, it’s like someone put chocolate in their peanut butter.

Can DJ’s team defeat the seven time step champ team, and the team of his main rival?  Will he be able to win over April?

Stomp The Yard is full of amazing dancing, plenty of that look-at-me machismo I find so annoying, entertaining music and a decent story that might be overly familiar, but it works well enough until writer Robert Adetuyi (fresh off making no effort on Code Name: The Cleaner) decides he needs to overcomplicate the movie with a last minute melodramatic crisis that deflates Stomp The Yard faster than a Macy’s Day Parade balloon on the day after Thanksgiving (Yes, I am suffering from holiday hangover).

Director Sylvain White is overly eager to prove himself as we get stuck with too many slow motion shots of dancers doing their thing, and, inexplicably, a few slow motion shots of Meagan Good walking and running across campus.  I can’t blame him, and certainly appreciate Good in all of her fine-ness, but someone should remind White he is not making a music video or a porno. Although, you have to give the director points for focusing on a guy wearing an Easter Bunny outfit in a crowded club scene (and it’s not even Easter yet!).  I feel White was thinking of entertaining me with that absurdity, as well as the pointless scenes of the step teams practicing in the woods (like Zen warriors!), running to the top of Stone Mountain (like Rocky!), or using an empty swimming pool, which logically makes no sense, since the echoes would be quite disruptive to hearing the music and stepping in time.  As you can tell, White is more interested in creating visuals than following logic or common sense. 

Meanwhile, Adetuyi’s script is just the usual without much of an attempt to be original, daring or challenging for the audience.  Our villain, Grant (Darrin Henson), is too obvious and such a jerk we can’t imagine why April would ever let him take her on a date, let alone have a more intimate, non-alcohol fueled relationship with him.  The conflicts are all easily resolved and predictable, and we have that big crisis out of nowhere that I mentioned before.  However, it is nice to a see a movie aimed at teens that promotes and values education, teamwork, self-respect, self-motivation and dedication.

If you like many montages, lots of dancing to kill time and sexy women moving in slow motion, Stomp The Yard is your movie. 

1 ½ Waffles (Out Of 4)

Stomp The Yard is rated PG-13 for a scene of violence, some sexual material and language. 

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