TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE NEXT GENERATION (1997)
Starring Renee Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey
Before landing big roles in films such as "Jerry Maguire" and "Empire Records," Zellweger starred in this rather lame, virtually gore-free fourth film in the abysmal "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" franchise. McConaughey, meanwhile, would go on to starring in big-budget flicks like "Contact" and "EdTV," but not until after playing one of the mad family members in this dog.
The "hook" of this embarrassing retread of the first movie is that Leatherface is wearing drag. "If looks could kill, he wouldn't need a chainsaw," the posters screamed. Yeah. If bad movies could kill we wouldn't need the stealth missile either. You suck, Kim Henkel. It's my understanding that this pic wasn't even slated to enjoy a widespread release at all, it's so god-awful, but it garnered a re-release after Zellweger and McConaughey's careers took off. There was an accusation from the producers thrown around that the film actually wasn't given as wide a release as it should have, because of the stars involved. The idea was that Hollywood bigwigs were suppressing the movie because they didn't want to tarnish the names of Zellwegger and McConaughey. The opposite is probably true: This film would never have been noticed were it not for the stars.
You're bound to run into it in your local video store. Avoid, avoid, avoid ...