MovieMuse
Born in the mid-70’s, Mat ‘Witchfinder’ Corne grew up as part of the Star Wars generation, and to be honest he’s still stuck there! If there’s some kind of geeky hobby that can be pursued then Mat is almost certainly interested, be it Retro Gaming, binge-watching Cult TV shows, collecting vintage Star Wars toys or checking out the latest action films at the cinema.
With an encyclopaedic knowledge of movies, TV, games and music, Mat is never short of something to say on any topic and is partial to a good rant about most things. Aside from the nostalgic hobbies he’s also a fan of football, rollercoasters and travelling the world, which he combines at regular opportunities! He lives in Stoke-on-Trent with his incredibly patient wife and a ridiculous Romanian rescue dog called Luca.
Mat is responsible for MovieMuse’s weekly Freeview Movies of the Week article and is co-editor of the MovieMuse podcast.
Mat's favourite things...
| Films | Games | TV | Music |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Empire Strikes Back | Bubble Bobble (Arcade) | The X-Files | Master of Puppets (Metallica) |
| Die Hard | Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (PS2) | Twin Peaks | Songs for the Deaf (Queens of the Stone Age) |
| Back to the Future | Wizball (Commodore 64) | The Walking Dead | Appetite for Destruction (Guns n Roses) |
| Star Wars | Fallout 3 (PS3) | Breaking Bad | Earth Vs The Wildhearts (The Wildhearts) |
| The Terminator | Chuckie Egg (BBC Micro) | 24 (Seasons 1-4 only!) | Rust in Peace (Megadeth) |
| Rocky | Rock Band 3 (PS3) | ||
| Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring | Star Wars (Arcade) | ||
| Halloween | Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Megadrive) | ||
| Fargo | Donkey Kong (Arcade) | ||
| Pulp Fiction | Golden Axe (Megadrive) |
Mat’s Reviews
| Poster | Movie | Year | Comments | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Moose: The Movie | 2015 | You have to admire the Alaskan community that put this film together and it does have a few funny moments, but the acting is generally woeful, it is way too long and many scenes feel like they have been written independently from one another. | 4 |
 |
21 Bridges | 2019 | The lead actors lay on the New York accents a little heavily which makes them hard to understand at times, but otherwise this is an unusually glamour-free action film with some excellent setpieces and a tense, if slightly predictable story. | 7 |
 |
The Love Bug | 1968 | The visual effects are understandably dated but otherwise this film has held up well, with a number of really funny scenes, some exciting racing sequences and a surprising amount of innuendo for a Disney production. | 8 |
 |
Candyman: The David Klein Story | 2010 | A low budget but interesting story about the creator of Jelly Belly beans, which is a sadly familiar American story of an innovator whose business naivety results in him being taken advantage of by a more ruthless company. | 6 |
 |
The Wrong Rock | 2018 | Beautifully animated with a dramatic score, this whimsical story stirs the emotions without a single word being spoken and should be regarded as highly as some of Pixar and Disney's short films. | 8 |
 |
The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special | 2020 | As with all Lego productions there are plenty of amusing moments and it's not afraid to poke fun at the franchise, but story-wise this is fairly disappointing and relies too much on rehashing famous scenes from the Skywalker saga. | 6 |
 |
The Incredible Journey | 1963 | A delightful and dramatic tale that showcases some brilliantly-trained animal actors, but you can't help wondering about their welfare given some of the dangerous scenes they are put into and the lack of visual effects support in that era. | 7 |
 |
Brightburn | 2019 | This dark twist on the Superman story has a great premise and probably deserved a better film than it got, but as a horror film it works fairly well with some gruesome deaths and an effective, creepy performance from Jackson Dunn. | 6 |
 |
The Knight Before Christmas | 2019 | Josh Whitehouse is good value as a 14th century knight transported to modern times to fulfil a quest by Christmas Eve. Utterly predictable but above-average acting and some amusing 'fish out of water' scenes make it a perfectly watchable festive film. | 6 |
 |
It's a Wonderful Life | 1946 | Putting aside the sometimes stiff acting of the era and the drawn out first half, this is a clever, funny and heartwarming tale that deserves its classic status, though the connection to Christmas is purely circumstantial and has no bearing on the plot. | 7 |
 |
Black Christmas | 1974 | Its influence on the slasher movie genre is clear, the premise is good and there are definitely creepy moments, but the acting is dire and the plot twists are completely predictable, though I appreciate that may not have been the case when it was made. | 5 |
 |
The Christmas Chronicles 2 | 2020 | Again influenced by past Christmas movies but plundering almost every major family comedy and fantasy movie of the last 40 years for ideas too, the plot is a bit of a mess and there's some below-par CGI, but it is still a fairly enjoyable Christmas movie. | 6 |
 |
A Christmoose Story (Midden in de Winternacht) | 2013 | A lonely boy meets a magical talking moose in this Dutch film whose story is vaguely reminscent of E.T. It suffers from the dubbed American voices and some mean-spirited characters but the animatronic moose is quite good and there are a few funny scenes | 5 |
 |
Color Out of Space | 2019 | There are plenty of bizarre scenes as Nic Cage and his family are slowly driven crazy by a crashed meteor, but despite the psychedelic cinematography and impressive score, this is far less interesting than the premise suggested. | 6 |
 |
Krampus | 2015 | Possibly the most terrifying of all Christmas horror movies due to certain scenes, but also one of the most amusing and well realised, with a good cast and a positive festive message amongst the carnage. | 7 |
 |
Bad Santa 2 | 2016 | Deeply offensive and not particularly funny, this is a poor attempt to build on the themes of the first film and is almost certainly the worst film ever made that features two Oscar winners in its cast! | 3 |
 |
Christmas in Canaan | 2009 | This Hallmark production has several tear-jerking moments but is far from the usual sentimental Christmas fare, focusing on a friendship between two boys that crosses the racial divide in 1960s America, and is a heartwarming story with reasonable acting. | 6 |
 |
The Night Before | 2015 | A typical Seth Rogen "boys night out" comedy for the most part, but there are enough funny scenes to make it enjoyable and the many nods to well-known Christmas movies are cleverly done. | 6 |
 |
Jingle All The Way | 1996 | A fairly joyless plot, cringeworthy humour, detestable characters and woeful acting make this a Christmas dud for the most part, though the action-packed last 20 minutes do redeem it slightly. Still one of Arnie's worst though! | 4 |
 |
Klaus | 2019 | This alternate origin story for Santa Claus is a nice idea and the 2.5D animation is stylish, but the film is frequently quite dull and the dialogue lacks the polish of the animated films from bigger studios. | 5 |
 |
Miracle on 34th Street | 1994 | Richard Attenborough is fantastic in this delightful, frequently hilarious story that also has great courtroom drama scenes and retains the old-fashioned charm of the era that the original version was made. | 8 |
 |
Scrooged | 1988 | A witty and occasionally touching retelling of A Christmas Carol with Bill Murray in fine comedic form and Carol Kane the pick of bunch from the ghosts that pay him a visit. | 7 |
 |
Happiest Season | 2020 | This Christmas-set LGBT twist on Meet the Parents is not particularly festive but the story is good, it features some great acting talent and there are just enough comedic moments to counteract the heavier relationship drama. | 6 |
 |
Love Actually | 2003 | Over the top, sentimental, awkward, comical and packed with cheese - Love Actually is all of these things but so is Christmas, so as a heart-warming festive feelgood movie it's hard to beat. | 7 |
 |
Soul | 2020 | Director Pete Docter takes another delve into the human psyche, but with the abstract subject matter and almost no comedy it feels like the first Pixar film made for adults only, and yet I longed for more childish moments to relieve the serious tone. | 6 |