Many popular actors appeared in a lot of crap up until they had a breakthrough film that made them stars. Sylvester Stallone made porn as well as "Death Race 2000" before making it big with "Rocky". George Clooney made "Grizzly II: The Concert". Johnny Depp starred in "A Nightmare on Elmstreet". And, Renée Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey both starred in "The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre"...a film that is currently #45 on the IMDB's infamous Bottom 100 List--the 100 worst rated major release movies of all time.

In this film, the normally cute and very pretty Zellweger plays a ridiculous nerd. How do you know she's a nerd? She never washes her hair and wears dorky glasses. Why she would hang out on prom night with the vacuous and nasty 'popular couple' makes little sense....and everyone seemed more like caricatures than real people. Plus, anyone...even a super-dork...would wash their hair when going to prom. As for McConaughey, he plays a redneck serial killer...and actually is much more believable than the rest. Little do any of them know that far worse awaits them.

So is the film any good despite being on IMDB's infamous Bottom 100 List? No. Many of the characters make no sense (such as the lady who flashes her breasts out the window and whose dialog was written by a groundhog) and the film seems like it was made for folks who find the "Friday the 13th" franchise too intellectually taxing. Bad acting, bad direction, ultra-violence and a script that simply is an excuse to see teens butchered...this one is simply a bad film from start to finish. But it's also proof that being in a terrible film like this does not necessarily destroy your career. You can, over time and with better scripts, overcome the embarrassment of being in "The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre".

This, the fourth in the original series of CHAINSAW films, is without a doubt the oddest yet. Gone is the grinding horror of the original movie, in favour of an out-and-out comedy. It's easy to see why no more sequels were released after this, at least until Michael Bay's franchise 'reboot' – the formula had been worked into the ground and only repetition could follow. THE NEXT GENERATION is widely regarded as the worst of the series, a total non-event with more horror to be found in a pair of smelly socks, but I think critics are missing the point. This isn't MEANT to be a horror flick – instead it's a comedy.

The threadbare plot is nothing new, a simple sequence of events designed to get some innocent teenagers into the chainsaw household. Once here, the sole surviving female finds herself menaced by a group of mad men (and a woman!). Director Kim Henkel, who wrote and produced the original classic, has plenty of affinity with his material and his focus here is to create new extremes out of old. The film is a chronicle of screeching insanity with every actor encouraged to go way over the top in the call of duty, and I have to admit, I enjoyed the film simply because it's so odd.

Of course, it's saddled with cheesy '90s production values and a dearth of characterisation. The teenage 'good guys' are utterly devoid of interest, and the only interesting thing about the main character of Jenny is that the actress portraying her is Renee Zellweger, years before she became really famous in Hollywood. There's no sign of future greatness here, Zellweger is no different from a hundred other teenage scream queens. No, the real interest comes from the complete nutters portraying the 'family'. Leatherface is back, acted by a different actor and this time dressing up as an old woman; he's not menacing at all here, but instead slightly endearing and completely loopy, screaming just as much as Zellweger! The real star of the show, though, is another pre-stardom actor, Matthew McConaughey, playing demented murderer Vilmer. Interesting, McConaughey takes over from ANOTHER pre-stardom actor, Viggo Mortensen, who played virtually the same character in the previous sequel, Leatherface. McConaughey goes above and beyond with a performance of immense energy and physicality and watching him creeping around, complete with bionic leg (!) and harassing people is what makes the film.

So there you have THE NEXT GENERATION. It's an overpadded film, full of long, slightly dull chase scenes and an overacting McConaughey literally chewing up the scenery. It may not be art, but I did laugh a lot in comparison to many other so-called Hollywood 'comedies'.

The first stories about the infamous cannibal family emerged in 1973. It's 1996 and it's been quiet for a few years. Jenny (Renée Zellweger) is at her high school prom. She gets brought along with her 'friends' when they get into a car crash. She heads off to find help. She and her friends fall prey to the secret cannibals and murderous tow truck driver Vilmer (Matthew McConaughey).

This is a few months after Dazed and Confused. Both Zellweger and McConaughey would go from that indie darling to this forgotten horror comedy and eventually onwards to becoming Academy Awards winning stars. It's amazing to see the two Texans doing an iconic Texas horror franchise. Strict franchise fanatics would hate this Leatherface. There's no way any cinema snobs would like this. At the time, these future stars were nobodies. I can understand its dismissal at the time of its release. I myself am watching it for the first time. It is pure joy to watch McConaughey go full crazy and Zellweger finding her inner scream queen. This is also a little fun. Darla is a little funny but the drive-thru takes it too far. This movie has probably improved markedly due to the performances of its famous stars.