Customer Reviews
Bad movie 
2008-01-12
I wanted to give this a try even though I wasn't sure what it was about. Very disapointed in the movie. Bad acting, bad story, bad dancing.
After watching this film, I had to immediately watch it again! 
2007-12-19
I loved this movie and it was a surprise to me. Yes, the story's typical. Heck, the whole movie was to highlight the dancing. So what? The story was very well done and the characters show immense growth. DJ goes from "all about me" to a "team" player, even swallowing his pride to do so. April went from an insecure girl who was just hanging on to 'big man on campus' to please others to a woman who made her own choices for herself. And Grant, the nemesis of the movie was consistently shown up for his underhanded and too controlling ways.
The dancing/stepping was awesome and a beautifully primal example of the fullness of being alive. The beats were all culturally significant and hinted at the old spirituals of days gone by. In a sense they spoke to the same strengths of the people.
Columbus Short was really an amazing dancer. I'd watch him again and again.
I think that even though this story was about African Americans and the dances were predominantly from that culture, the story and the moral of the story transcends any race. It's about respecting each other, about love, about teamwork and about being your best.
I give this movie a full five stars for it's entertainment value, it's moral and mostly the wonderful dancing.
A Valuable Member of Your Home Entertainment Collection 2007-11-25
After a feast of a holiday dinner, my family and I claimed individual plots around the television screen after deciding to check this movie out. Shortly after pressing 'play', our carb drunk minds were shaken awake. My brother, who was the stepmaster for his college frat step line, served as our consultant and loved it enough to watch it everytime someone else decided to watch it just one more time that weekend. We laughed, we imitated, we joked and then some of us held back one tear at the end.
This movie is a must own. The copy that we were watching was a rental. By the end of the weekend we were the proud owners of our own copy.
There's a good story buried in there . . . or a surreal, hilarious romp 2007-11-04
Is there really a world where gang members and hip college students' lives are centered around often-absurd group-choreographed "dance-off" parties? Sure, it's good exercise for kids (and the athleticism and choreography in the film are impressive), but it's difficult for me to believe that this is really going on. Maybe we're going to see a craze for this now as we had similar crazes in the wake of Saturday Night Fever (1977) and Urban Cowboy (1980)?
Of course, it doesn't have to be about reality for me to think it's a good film, but the problem here is that the dance-off, or "stomp", sections are incredibly bizarre, yet they're played completely straight. You'd only have to notch it up slightly to make a hilarious absurdist comedy out of this. The funniest parts are when the dancers effectively "trade insults" through choreography. It's not that I can't appreciate "dance-off" films. I love Saturday Night Fever, for example. And even the recent Roll Bounce (2005) was a great film.
But here the "dance-off" bits eat up the majority of screen time, and not only do the participants approach them in a deadly serious way, as if they care far more about them than anything imaginable--members of the opposite sex, other sports, other music . . . or how about concentrating on schoolwork?--but even people who aren't participating tend to react to the "stompers" like late 1950s teens in the presence of Elvis. And with Elvis, they at least had the excuse that they didn't go to school with him every day. There's also a hard-to-swallow militarism in the "stomping". Cadet Kelly (2002) featured something like this, but it made sense in that context. Maybe this should have been set at a military school?
A bigger problem (since the "stomping" as intentionally absurdist is something I'd probably rate relatively high) is that there's a decent, serious drama buried here. We get to explore it for about 15 - 20 minutes, but that's not enough. This could be quite a tear-jerker from many different angles, but instead, you find yourself continually asking "What planet is this on?" as director Sylvain White makes sure that we get more "stomping" every few minutes.
HOLLYWOOD 2007-10-17
The movie was about DJ (Cloumbus Short) pledging against another male faternity (Alpha Kappa Mu's) in competion doing the best moves they can do. Personally I rate this movie as a five it kept me in my seat i didn;t want to miss not a second of it. When i saw the whole movie i wanted to play it over and over again i thought i could do the moves myself. I had my whole family trying to help me do the moves. It didn't work out. I think the best movie ever trying to maintain a relationship, school, and pledging is very hard.
Stomp The Yard 2008-06-02
I love the movie. I watched it on SKY and just had to get it. Shows how the youth can vent anger and frustration positively. The only thing was that I bought it from America so it won't show in my DVD in England, but it will play on the computer. So make sure if you want to buy this DVD that you make sure you buy the correct version for your region.. but a must have for anyone who loves music and style.
A good, if tired, story and dancing worth watching again 
2008-04-28
This is an enjoyable movie. The actors all do a very good job -- no small feat considering some of the leads are dancers and not actors -- and of course, the dancing is all it's cracked up to be. The plot is mildly engaging, even though it's thoroughly predictable and has been done over and over. Sometimes characters seemed to change too quickly and do things that were out of character; but plot isn't really what this movie is about. This is a dancing film with a very simple conflict story thrown in -- the kind that usually drives low-brow sports comedies, of underdog team against a dynasty, and two members of those teams having a personal grudge.
Honestly, I didn't start off enjoying this film. I'm not hip enough to keep up with the gangsta dance battle that takes place at the beginning of the film, especially the way the camera was jerking around; I had a hard time distinguishing between dancers, etc. and was not anywhere near familiar enough with the dancing to have any kind of sense for who was better or why. But I did end up liking (not loving) the film by the end. And I do appreciate artistically the way the director deftly changed the whole look and mood of the movie from the dangerous street dancing in the opening's gangland LA to the more peaceful intensity of the rest of the movie's Georgia college setting. It helped lend a sense of repressed danger to Columbus Short's lead character that made the threats of his frat-boy enemies seem disingenuous.
Short, by the way, turns in a quiet performance in the most critical role that really glues the film together.
To summarize, this film is worth a look as a rental. Whether or not you want to own it would depend on how much you enjoy the dancing sequences.
Simp kultur 2008-04-18
Well, at least the kids aren't shooting each other and killing people. They form little gangs that dance against each other like the dancers in Michael Jackson's "Beat It". It's a positive step for black youth culture that a film be about black, or urban, youths... Ohh wait a second. Man,__Nevermind__ .I SWEAR TO GOD -- just as I was typing this out on my computer, just NOW, it got to the part where they beat each other up and dude has a gun and kills somebody. Oh well.
(I know, I know, you should see an entire film before "reviewing" it, but I was too inspired by all the fabulous dancing. I felt the spirit of the music in me. And I'm white!)
I have nothing to say now. When will the madness end?!! When we will stop killing each other with guns?! I hope that one day dumb, hormonally challenged kids will resolve conflicts and relieve their fustrations by "stomping yards", not shooting guns. No offense, but hopehully with better music and dance moves cause dat shiz is cheeezy yo. Yall kids might not rememba, but back in like tha 80s there wuz these break dancin' movies called "Breakin'" or somethan and this ain't much cooler.
"Stomp the Yard" A Film of Life-Affirming Power and Beauty 2008-04-18
Director Sylvain White's STOMP THE YARD may not strike many as an ideal movie for the family to gather around and watch during holidays or other special occasions but it actually is because holidays are about reaping the benefits of tradition and this movie is about that too. It's not so clear at the film's beginning whether we're watching a violent video game or a demonstration of directorial genius. The distinction, however, soon becomes obvious and the genius apparent.
The mesmerizing opening dance scenes come across a lot like video gladiator battle sequences. These give way to the urban realism of a more brutal --and fatal-- L.A. gang clash after the not-so-lethal dance battle. DJ, played pitch perfectly by Columbus Short, loses his brother Duron (singer Chris Brown does an impressive job in this role) to a bullet in the clash and life as DJ knows it then comes to a screeching halt.
After a brief time in jail, he leaves the West Coast for Georgia, where he moves in with his aunt and uncle, then enrolls in college. It seems like the perfect strategy for rebuilding your life but DJ has problems with the idea that he's living his brother's dream of going to college and that his own is not all that definite. Perhaps among the most under-appreciated gifted actors of his generation, Harry Lennix gives one of the strongest performances of his career as the no-nonsense-taking uncle who pulls DJ out of his self-pitying funk. Their relationship proves to be one of tough-love and mutual respect. It also provides a rare glimpse into how black male relatives often function as surrogate fathers to youth whose biological fathers for whatever reason are nowhere to be seen.
The move from West Coast to Georgia might appear coincidental but in fact it is crucial to this film because DJ's move takes him out of a region of the country where historically black institutions like Clark University and Tuskegee Institute do not exist, and into one where their presence and legacy remains strong. The move to Georgia turns into an inner journey to his ancestral beginnings where ultimately he discovers the strength and integrity needed to cope with the grief over his brother's death and move forward with a vision for his own life.
Once he becomes a student at Truth University, DJ initially demonstrates the same kind of arrogance and self-absorption that got him into conflicts back in L.A. But he also discovers the world of stepping, both a new form of dance for him and a cultural tradition going back to the establishment of the first black Greek Letter fraternities and sororities in the early 1900s during the Harlem Renaissance. He becomes determined to help his chosen fraternity, Theta Nu Theta, end a seven-year long losing streak against their rivals Mu Gamma Xi, and to win the heart of co-ed April Palmer (played beautifully by Megan Good). His efforts take him through an inspiring rites of passage during which he learns a great deal about his ancestral legacies and the advantages of sometimes working as part of a team rather than thinking only of himself.
The culminating dance competitions in Stomp the Yard have to be seen to be believed and rank among the best in cinema history. Ultimately, this film is one that stands alongside "You've Been Served," "Drumline," and others that accentuate the life-affirming power and beauty of many African-American college traditions. In the process, it confirms and celebrates that same potential in all human beings.
by Author-Poet Aberjhani
author of The Bridge of Silver Wings (Songs of the Angelic Gaze)
and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)
Bad movie 2008-01-12
I wanted to give this a try even though I wasn't sure what it was about. Very disapointed in the movie. Bad acting, bad story, bad dancing.
