Review of Stomp The Yard

Introduction

If I caught someone stomping my yard, my first instinct would be to thrash them within an inch of their life. It just doesn`t sound like a particularly respectful thing to do. But then I`m a twenty-something metalhead who may or may not have taken a blood oath to kneel exclusively at the altar of rock and roll, so hip-hop and urban culture is like another world completely. When my trousers are bunching around my knees, it`s because I forgot to wear my belt.

`Stomp The Yard`, as it turns out, is a reference to stepping, a predominantly African-American dance-type-thing where sound is created through the percussive use of slapping and stomping, practiced mainly as a group-based exercise by black fraternities and sororities across American campuses. As it`s presented here, it seems to be a cross between the manly art of cheerleading and the oddly entertaining `Riverdance`.

Columbus Short plays DJ, a `ghetto boy` who moves in with his Auntie and Uncle in suburban Georgia after he`s caught up in a fight which results in the murder of his brother. So far, so Fresh Prince. After his uncle pulls some strings, DJ is expected to attend Truth University (not a metaphor), work a job and be an all round productive member of society. But he`s barely in the door of his new dorm when he falls for a pretty girl, finds himself surrounded by oddball friends and ends up stirring the ire of the local stepping champions, fraternity Mu Gamma Xi. Of course as it turns out, the girl he likes not only happens to be the daughter of the school`s angry provost but also the trophy gal of Mu Gamma Xi`s most outspoken and fiery member. Can DJ fit in, shed his ghetto image, avoid the overbearing father and win the affections of the girl, gain the respect of his rivals and lead an opposing fraternity to the regional stepping championships?

You bet yo ass, jivesucka.

Video

Anamorphic 2.35:1, and `Stomp The Yard` kicks off with an inner-city dance off that`s given the hip-hop music video look. It`s all washed out colours, blitzing edits and fast-motion camera work - not a million miles from `Man on Fire`. Pulling out the grain filter and bleaching the palette does little to show off the capabilities of Blu-ray, but thankfully it settles down eventually. It`s here that `Stomp The Yard` on BD proves to be a great-looking flick without ever really jumping out at you. It`s pin-sharp, with great blacks, nice warm colours and an overall crispness that you only get from high definition. It holds its detail well, especially in busy frames, and there are no obvious flaws to speak of. It`s a 2007 film and anything less would be ridiculous.

* Viewed on a 32" 1366 x 768 panel at 720p

* The screenshots featured here are for illustrative purposes only. They were not taken from the Blu-ray source, and as such, the images are not representative of the quality of the disc.

Audio

All the 5.1s you expect from Blu-ray and a few you don`t - namely uncompressed PCM and Dolby Digital, plus a hard of hearing track with added narrator goodness, plus a few European voice-over tracks for the good folks who speak Czech, Hungarian or Polish, and a shed-load of subtitle tracks. I`m not set up for uncompressed multi-channel, but the standard Dolby Digital surround track is booming. Great depth, solid if moderately reserved use of the whole soundstage and clear as a bell. As you would expect, it`s choc-full of hip-hop tunes bleeding from every orifice, a few I was pleasantly surprised to hear sampling the likes of groove metal riffs, wailing axe solos and even a straight out gangsta remix of an Ozzy Osbourne classic. Rock on!

Features

A feature commentary from the director, editor and cinematographer starts out with an anecdote, and it proves to be the direction the track takes. Plenty of technical detail is squeezed in thanks to the varied cast, but whether or not you get any mileage from it depends on how heavily you favour the film itself. Quite obviously.

`Battles. Rivals. Brothers` is a short 17-minute EPK `making of`, purely standard issue watch-once-and-dispose. It is presented in HD, though.

`Gag Reel` is, surprise, a short selection of outtakes. Mostly of the `hilarious` line-fluffing variety, personally I can`t get enough of this kind of thing.

There`s also a few trailers on the disc, including one for `Casino Royale` on Blu-ray that looks, frankly, outstanding. So there you go.

Conclusion

If I poured myself a nip every time `Stomp The Yard` threw out an excerpt from the big book of clichés, this review would read like the transcript from an Oliver Reed interview appearance. Sports-movie clichés, inspirational clichés, overcoming the odds clichés, star-crossed lover clichés. Honestly I could go on and on. But I won`t, because I rather enjoyed it. It`s not clever. It`s not important. Hell, it`s not even that well made. But I`ll tell you, if you don`t feel like joining a fraternity and being the best young black man you can be after watching it, you`re a stone-hearted automaton. And we don`t need your likes around here.

Underneath all the "shizzles", "dawgs" and "homeboys", it`s the same story that`s been told over and over again, even if you can`t point you finger at its origins. A little of `Romeo and Juliet`, a touch of `Chariots of Fire` and a big, stinking handful of corny 80s melodramatic actioner `Over The Top`. At least that`s how I saw it. I suppose if you had to single it down to one film, it`s perennial guilty pleasure `Bring It On` minus the pom poms, short skirts and acerbic humour, but with baggy jeans, a pleasantly triumphant message and an abundance of rippling man-abs instead. Leads Columbus Short and Meagan Good have a great on-screen chemistry, and the performances aren`t bad either.

I spotted a couple of duff edits and director Sylvain White either puts on a sub-par Tony Scott clinic or plays it boringly narrow and straight, but the term competent enough seems fitting for the man fresh off the straight-to-DVD second sequel to `I Know What You Did Last Summer`. The stepping, some will argue the star of the show, didn`t particularly sway me, the dance form presented here as a mix of shtick Michael Jackson was doing 20-years ago and that king of the silly dance the `Robot`. It`s all well very choreographed though, and the `kidz` probably go crazy for this kind of stuff. For the rest of us, if you can stomach the fact that the characters resolve their personal disputes with no-contact dance offs and not busting knuckles like normal, civilised people, it`s an enjoyable piece of hackneyed popcorn fluff.