In just over 24 hours the word about Zyzzyx Road has spread across the internet, and my inbox has been inundated with emails. I haven’t even had a chance to call the folks at Leo Grillo Productions yet and already many new facts have surfaced – including an eyewitness report from someone who saw the movie in theaters!
Ed Havens, the FilmJerk himself, checked in with some interesting news: the reason that Zyzzyx Road played in a single theater in Texas is because Regent Releasing, the folks who put the movie out, own the theater. Ed was the original guy on Zyzzyx Road – he has something called The Early Report on his site, which is an exhaustive look at all the movies being released in the next six weeks, with theater counts, running times, ratings and more. And when I say exhaustive, I mean that Havens was tracking Zyzzyx Road before its release.
I also got a lot of emails directing me to various torrents and other downloads of Zyzzyx Road. They’re tempting, but I am committed to seeing this film legally – hopefully in a screener I can score from Leo Grillo Productions. Also, be aware that there is another movie with a similar name out there, which is only cluttering things up. That film is called Zzyzx (no one can seem to agree on how to spell the word), and it stars some guy who was on The Shield once. This film has a MySpace page and a snazzy site at www.zzmovie.com, but this is not the film starring Tom Sizemore, Katherine Heigl and the infamous Leo Grillo. Accept no substitutes!
Finally, Susan, who runs the Unofficial Tom Sizemore site (where you can, if you are so inclined, find pictures of Sizemore as a teen), emailed to say that she saw the movie on the opening Saturday. Her email changes the basic Zyzzyx Road facts, though – she says the Regent Theater charges 6 or 6.50 – and that she the film at a matinee, where it was likely cheaper (she didn’t keep the ticket stub, but considering she runs a Tom Sizemore site, I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt), and there was another person in the theater. This means that maybe six to seven people saw the film in its theatrical run – which is too bad, because three people is just so much funnier.
Here’s Susan’s story:
I saw it the first Saturday it was out. I never kept the ticket stub. There was only one other person in the theater at the very back(the movie was shown in a very small theater). They came in just as it started, so they may have worked there. Here was my review of it:
Whomever wrote this must have been a fan of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. They probably saw a ZONE marathon and thought that they could do an updated take on the whole ZONE vibe. Well…no luck. This is not a good movie. It will end up on the SCI-FI channel as a Sunday afternoon movie, probably after HIGHWAY 666. It’s just a bunch of stupid people doing a lot of stupid things.
Having wrote that, the question then becomes, "Why was Tom in this movie?" Figure it’s for the money, and maybe the fact he gets bopped on the head with a woman’s vibrator…with the motor running.
I also remember that it looked like it was being shown off bad tape. The quality was pretty bad. Oh, Tom broke character and smiled right b4 he got hit with the vibrator.
I’m not even sure it will ever make it to DVD, it’s that bad. But with Heigl being big right now and Tom starting his show, it may get a release.
So yes, there were survivors. When I went to go see the Genius Club, there were actually 2 other people, but one was mentally challenged and spent the movie running back and forth in front of the screen periodically yelling things(could not understand one word). His care-giver just sat there in a front seat, watching the movie.
I hope to have more info for you in the days and weeks ahead. We’ve tracked down one person who saw Zyzzyx Road in theaters… now our quest is really getting underway.