This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 12:01 am and is filed under Drama, Musicals, S. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Director: Sylvain White
Starring: Columbus Short, Meagan Good, Ne-Yo, Darrin Henson, Brian J. White, Laz Alonso
Stepping is an element of African-American culture that has been under-represented in cinema. That’s a shame. It’s also a shame that its eventual representation had to come in a weak formula movie like this one. Forgetting the gaping holes in logic (and they are damn hard to forget), the characters are one-dimensional cardboard cutouts. The clichéd self-important script manages to go 115 minutes without a single original scene and the dialogue flirts with unintentional humour. The dancing and stepping scenes are not as good as I had hoped and in a movie like this, that is fatal.
Columbus Short is DJ, a member of some kind of street dancing group (I didn’t know such things existed. Are they for real?) that performs dance like its some kind of violent explosion, and soon it erupts into real violence. After a tragedy, DJ ends up going to an African American university where two rival fraternities compete; primarily on the stepping stage. DJ, naturally finds himself in conflict with one of the groups over a girl (Meagan Good), and this rivalry will eventually be settled in a group dance competition. Ummm, ok, then.
If this is your thing, watch and enjoy, but I don’t see it winning any new converts. Rent 8 Mile if you want an edgy, urban, music drama. If you are in the mood for some cool dancing, Riverdance is available on DVD. If have seen too many clever, original movies, lately, Stomp The Yard is sitting on the shelf, no doubt.
