An Alright Black Movie

Before I begin, I'd like to preface this entry by saying that I do not know Columbus Short, nor do I know anyone related to anyone answering to this name. For some reason, a few of my female friends have called me asking for connection because this dude, the star of Stomp the Yar, is supposedly from Kansas City. But I did my research, and he moved from KC when he was 5.

I digress.

Stomp the Yard shocked me. I entered the theater last Friday with a fellow greek friend, an AKA, with low expectations and ready to bash the movie if it was bad. Surprisingly, it proved to be a decent movie and worth the price of admission.

But I must say, the story itself, not necessarily the script, acting or stepping for that matter, made it worth seeing. For me, the movie stayed away from what black greek letter organizations are about, and concentrated chiefly on the idea of stepping, in most ways portraying it as the most significant part of black greek life. That I didn't like, and could actually see why Alpha and AKA threatened to boycott if the organizations names and pari weren't pulled from the film.

The stepping really wasn't all that great. The majority of the steps rivaled things I learned within the first week of practicing for my first stepshow, i.e. they weren't that difficult. Then it turned to dancing to fill the void, and actually introduced dancing as a solution to boring steps, a bad idea.

Also, Keith Sweat served as a celebrity judge. Another bad idea.

So what made the movie worthwhile? How about Chris Brown only lasting 10 minutes in the film (Thank God).

There were the reminders of greek life - probate shows, not being able to sit down in chairs too quickly, being on the yard and brotherhood.

Then there was the main plot: Columbus Short and the love story between he and Meagan Goode. It actually had some innocence to it, and served as the meat of the story when every other angle fell through.

Short's (DJ) interest in Meagan was believable and sincere, and saved an otherwise lifeless film. Just showing DJ in pursuit of a woman already spoken for was interesting, then to somehow weave DJ's family life into took it to a new level and actually complicated the matter.

Now, only if the writers could have done something to make the other stories in the movie more believable. It seemed like it could have been the concept, but maybe some hot shots came in and said it had to be a "national" step competition that the same step team had one seven straight years. Really, believable.

Who knows? But I still say go see it just for the love story and the fact that it's a black movie about something other than sex or violence, something we haven't seen in quite some time.