Defining "All Over The Place."

Disclaimer: Just because a movie is "all over the place" doesn't mean I hate it... it just means I PROBABLY hate it.

So, how can you tell if a movie is, indeed, all over the place. Let's take a look at two study films - 9 to 5, and Jurassic Park.


Now let's put them to the test.

Question 1. Who is the protagonist (lead character)?
Jurassic Park: Sam Neil's character Alan Grant.
9 to 5: Jane Fonda's character Judy Bernly

Question II. What does the protagonist want?
Jurassic Park: Alan Grant wants to not be eaten by dinosaurs.
9 to 5: Judy wants to be treated fairly at work.... only, wait, that's only for the first half of the movie. Later in the movie she is motivated differently and she just wants to not go to prison for killing her boss... THEN she doesn't want her boss to call the cops and report her and her friends, (Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton.)

And THAT is how we find out what movies are all over the place. Unlike Jurassic Park, the motivation of our main characters, (and thusly, the plot,) keeps changing. This is also the problem in Office Space. It starts as a movie about a guy who gets hypnotized and doesn't feel like giving work 110% anymore, and it changes to a movie about a guy who steals from his company.

Now, it's not that these movies are bad. I actually enjoy 9 to 5 and Office Space. It's just that they change the story half way through. It's sloppy writing. I really wanted to see Office Space end with more elaborate escalation, etc. Instead it ended with an end to a different movie. It's not that I didn't like the new direction, it just wasn't what the beginning of the movie prepared me for. It's like if your parents are driving you to Taco Bell and half way there they change their minds and drive you to McDonalds. Now, you're a kid, and you're stoked either way... but you had your heart set on volcano tacos.

It's like that.