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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
The Strangers | 2008 | An early modern offering from the Home Invasion Horror genre, and a particularly creepy one at that. Tension is built subtly and effectively until the logical conclusion, which is sadly a little underwhelming. | 7 |
 |
Now You See Me 2 | 2016 | Continuing the story from the first film, this is more of the same, with some spectacular set-pieces performed by a bunch of characters that are way too pleased with themselves. The highlight is an inspired and witty bit of casting for the main villain. | 5 |
 |
Kingsman: The Secret Service | 2015 | An unexpected highlight of 2015, "James Bond with chavs" should never have worked, but succeeds thanks to Taron Egerton's engaging performance, sharp humour and some gloriously choreographed violence. | 8 |
 |
The Howling | 1981 | This werewolf story takes an age to get going but offers some entertainment once it does, along with some decent effects. It's also comedic, some of it intentional and some as a result of the terrible 80s fashions and abundance of moustaches! | 5 |
 |
The 12 Disasters of Christmas | 2012 | A doomsday event inspired by the 12 Days of Christmas isn't the worst idea for a disaster movie, and this does its best with a limited cast and a presumably miniscule special effects budget. Not quite as awful as anticipated. | 5 |
 |
Lights Out | 2016 | David Sandberg's adaptation of his own short film is a taut, effective chiller with good characters and some incredible use of sound and light to build tension. Watch it with the lights off to maximise the scare factor! | 8 |
 |
Star Wars: The Force Awakens | 2015 | My fifth viewing of the film, and it's still just about as enjoyable as the first. It certainly riffs heavily on the original trilogy but the new characters bring a freshness to the saga, and there are plenty of thrills and laughs. | 8 |
 |
Star Wars: The Last Jedi | 2017 | There are a few moments in this film that are absolutely awful, but it also has fantastic visuals and the most daring story and character progression of any Star Wars movie so far. | 8 |
 |
Snow Day | 2000 | A predictable teen high school romance comedy set against a snowy backdrop. Mildly entertaining but nothing that hasn’t been done a thousand times before, and Chevy Chase may as well have not turned up. | 4 |
 |
The Girl With All the Gifts | 2016 | Seeing my local city centre as the setting for a post-apocalyptic zombie movie was exciting, but the movie itself was a bit of a slow burner with a dull ending. The main characters were all well-acted but nothing much happened. | 6 |
 |
Galaxy Quest | 1999 | Works as both a parody and a tribute to classic Star Trek, with a decent story, reasonable action and some brilliant comic performances. Alan Rickman gets most of the plaudits but Sigourney Weaver is just as good. | 7 |
 |
Duck Soup | 1933 | Almost completely devoid of plot, but covers almost every facet of physical and verbal comedy. Much of that was expected but the satire, songs and innuendo were all a surprise, and this was way more entertaining than I expected an 85 year old film to be. | 7 |
 |
Deck the Halls | 2006 | You'd expect a film starring Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito to be a bit higher calibre than most Christmas films, but this is the same bland and predictable 'heartwarming' family comedy as all the others. | 4 |
 |
Kill Me Three Times | 2014 | Starts off reasonably well but completely fails to follow the plot suggested by its title, and the early humour isn't sustained. Almost all the characters are horrible too, so there's nobody to root for. | 5 |
 |
As Above So Below | 2014 | Bland to begin with, but once it gets going this is an original, claustrophobic and occasionally scary movie. However, it would've been far better with a less irritating female lead and if it hadn't been shot in the 'found footage' style. | 6 |
 |
A Doggone Christmas | 2016 | Has almost no relevance to Christmas, with all but the opening scene obviously shot in summertime, and much of the acting is woeful, but the canine star is endearing and there are a few genuinely funny moments. | 4 |
 |
Why Him? | 2016 | Pretty much a rehash of Meet the Parents with a slightly different twist and a lot more crude humour. Sags heavily in the middle but the first and last half hour are entertaining enough. | 5 |
 |
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back | 2016 | The character's lone wolf persona is marginalised by his female co-stars and much of the black humour of the first film is missing. The result is a fairly generic action film and a disappointing sequel to one of Cruise's best films of recent times. | 5 |
 |
Christmas on Chestnut Street | 2006 | A very generic Christmas movie with some pretty shameful racial stereotyping and a depressing sub-plot about an old man with dementia. Abysmal stuff! | 2 |
 |
Frailty | 2001 | An interesting premise and good acting all round from adults and kids alike, but the twists are very predictable for the most part. Maybe I've just seen too many of this type of film! | 5 |
 |
The Dog Who Saved Christmas | 2009 | Basically it's Home Alone with a dog replacing Macaulay Culkin, much worse acting and very little humour. Inoffensive but instantly forgettable. | 3 |
 |
A Monster Christmas (Abominable Christmas) | 2012 | The only Christmas miracle in this 45 minute film is how they got recognised names like Ray Liotta and Emilio Estevez to provide voices to CG-animated characters that look like they were done for a GCSE Media Studies project. | 3 |
 |
Dodgeball | 2004 | The premise is ridiculous and the characters are mostly bizarre, but somehow it works to produce an entertaining comedy, though certain aspects seem dated already. | 7 |
 |
Die Hard | 1988 | Not only the best action film of all time, but also the best Christmas film of all time! An iconic moment in the evolution of action films, showing good guys didn?t need to be muscle-bound heroes and bad guys could be intelligent and engaging. | 10 |
 |
Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale | 2010 | A dark, comic twist on the Santa Claus legend, which hints at being a horror film but never truly follows through with it. Well put together on a modest budget, featuring a brilliant performance from Onni Tomilla who would go on to star in Big Game. | 7 |