Boy, that movie sucked. I’d always wanted to see it, too. Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Natalie Portman, Michael J. Fox, Martin Short, Annette Benning, Pierce Brosnan…the cast is seriously impressive. The premise us great, too: first contact with an alien civilization goes horribly wrong, and we have to figure out if we made some cultural blunder that caused the whole fiasco. And Tim Burton directed! Comedy, action, science fiction, cast, director, social commentary, and a musical number with the legendary Tom Jones! What else could you want?
How about a not-crappy movie?
On paper, it probably looked great. Sort of like a lot of our ideas in life. And just like a lot of our ideas in life, going from theory to practice…yeah, didn’t really work out so much. Sometimes, no amount of planning can prepare you for or save you from poor execution. That’s the moral of the story. Actually, not really.
Do you know what? That movie was made in 1996. Nicholson has been nominated for two Oscars since then. He won one of them. Glenn Close has made about 18 other films since then, worked extensively in television, and won several awards including an Emmy for her current show, Damages. Natalie Portman? Say what you will about them, but she carried the three Star Wars prequels. There’s Oscar buzz surrounding her latest performance in Black Swan. Pierce Brosnan was James Bond. James-freaking-Bond. Tim Burton has directed seven films since then. I could go on. And that’s sort of the point: everyone went on. With Mars Attacks, they took a chance, they made a movie, they moved on.
Few of us fail so publicly and so spectacularly as an actor or director in a Hollywood dud. Most of them just keep going on, keep working. What choice do they have, really? They love movies. They keep making them. They love telling stories. They keep telling them. They love bringing characters to life. They keep acting. It’s that simple.
How about you? Are you going to quit when you fall on your face? Or do you love your art enough to keep moving on?
Illuminate Possibilities 
excellent analogy! and terrible movie.