Stomp the Yard

An L.A. street dancer (Columbus Short) moves to Georgia after his brother is killed in a gang fight. He enrolls in an all-black college, where his dance moves earn him the interest of two rival fraternities—and of the provost’s beautiful daughter (Meagan Good). Robert Adetuyi’s script is reportedly “based on a screenplay by Gregory Ramon Anderson”; well, if this wheezing parade of worn-out clichés is what came out after rewrites, one shudders to imagine what it must have been to begin with. The actors give it all the conviction they can muster, but they contend in vain against the banality of their shopworn dialogue. Meanwhile, there are some excellent dance moves, but director Sylvain White chops them up with camera tricks until it’s hard even to tell what’s going on, and even harder to enjoy it.