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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Mercy Christmas | 2017 | A bizarre movie that takes the normal stress of cooking Christmas dinner and makes it all the more difficult by the main course being human beings! Low budget with limited acting, but still offers some original and humorous moments. | 5 |
 |
Mortal Engines | 2018 | Visually impressive and conceptually interesting, but the characters and story are dull, the pacing is off and the action sequences are boringly predictable. | 5 |
 |
The Secret Life of Pets 2 | 2019 | An undemanding but entertaining kids film that captures some of the more amusing pet bahaviours well, but the highlight is the inspired casting of Harrison Ford voicing a grumpy, disinterested sheepdog. | 6 |
 |
Official Secrets | 2019 | A fascinating, tense and emotional true story about moral versus legal obligations with an excellent, unglamorous performance by Keira Knightly in the lead role and a great supporting cast. | 8 |
 |
Herbie Rides Again | 1974 | The sentient VW Beetle returns in a story that lacks the coherence of the first film and comes across more like a series of cartoon sketches, but still has some amusing scenes and impressive stunts for the era. | 6 |
 |
Anna and the Apocalypse | 2017 | Blending a zombie apocalypse movie with a musical comedy is certainly an original idea, the acting is decent and there are some funny scenes, but most of the musical numbers are unremarkable and unnecessary, breaking the flow of an otherwise fun film. | 6 |
 |
Underwater | 2020 | This claustrophobic deep sea thriller wastes no time getting into the action and there are plenty of tense scenes, but the murky visuals and muffled dialogue make it very hard to follow at times. | 6 |
 |
The Way | 2010 | Emilio Estevez directs his father Martin Sheen on an emotional, gently comedic trek across Northern Spain that proves the old adage that it's the journey, not the destination that matters, and in this case the companions you may meet on it. | 7 |
 |
Togo | 2019 | Amazing dogs, stunning scenery and thrilling action scenes tell the story of the true heroes of the 1925 dog sled run that saved the Alaskan town of Nome after a diptheria outbreak. Wonderfully made and sure to bring a tear to the eye of any dog lover. | 8 |
 |
X-Men: Days of Future Past | 2014 | A clever story brings together the old and new actors from the franchise, with Hugh Jackman the linchpin holding it together and the 70s a great setting for the core story. High on action and emotion, this is the pinnacle of the X-Men saga. | 8 |
 |
Cliffhanger | 1993 | Great scenery, some thrilling stunts and a reasonable Stallone performance aren’t enough to save this from the absolutely horrendous dialogue and acting from almost everyone else involved. John Lithgow in particular should be ashamed. | 5 |
 |
The Invisible Man | 2020 | An interesting modern twist on the classic story with some creepy scenes, but the film is so slow-paced at times that it almost becomes boring. | 6 |
 |
The Addams Family | 1991 | Hard to watch to start with until you get used to the intentional over-acting, this is pitched as a family film yet features some quite provocative scenes and quite a bit of blood. Does get better as it goes on and is fairly entertaining towards the end. | 6 |
 |
Byzantium | 2012 | Another twist on vampire mythology, this dramatic and frequently gory film tells an interesting story across different time periods, with the modern day scenes the most compelling. Unique, pretty well acted and definitely worth a look for vampire fans. | 7 |
 |
Captain Fantastic | 2016 | Demonstrates the pros and cons of off-grid living in a frequently funny and occasionally touching way with Viggo Mortensen in fine form at the heart of the story, supported ably by a cast of entertaining youngsters. | 7 |
 |
The Doors | 1991 | As a snapshot of late 60s hedonism it seems authentic and Kilmer's portrayal of Jim Morrison is great, but as a tribute to the man and his band this painfully over-long film fails, showing him as a total asshole whilst his bandmates are barely involved. | 5 |
 |
Out | 2020 | Pixar's first LGBT focussed production has a charming art style and packs slapstick hilarity and touching emotional drama into a mere 9 minutes that is really rather wonderful. | 9 |
 |
Extinction | 2018 | Starts out as though it might be quite intelligent before degrading into a generic, lazily-plotted Alien invasion movie. Then there's a huge twist which should have been clever but somehow just makes it even worse! | 4 |
 |
Fled | 1996 | Behind the terrible title is a reasonably competent 90s action movie that doesn't take itself too seriously and has a few exciting setpieces. A perfectly acceptable way to waste 90 minutes. | 6 |
 |
The Game Plan | 2007 | An early Dwayne Johnson offering that shows a bit more range than his action films as he's paired with a feisty 8 year old. About as predictable as a film of this nature can be and cringeworthy at times, but still fairly enjoyable. | 6 |
 |
The Hunt | 2020 | Glorious violence and some of the blackest satirical comedy ever committed to film combine in a brilliantly-paced film that is entertaining from beginning to end, largely thanks to Betty Gilpin's performance and the brutal finale. | 8 |
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Irresistible | 2020 | For most of its running time this seems to be an amusing but fairly light-hearted satire of the US electoral system, but to the filmmakers' credit the late story twist reveals it to have a lot more serious message than it first appeared. | 7 |
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Knuckleball | 2018 | This snowbound thriller sees a boy fending for himself against a psychotic neighbour and is pretty disturbing, whilst also quite inventive. However, there's a bizarre turn of events late on that makes little sense and spoils the final act to some extent. | 6 |
 |
Jason Bourne | 2016 | Matt Damon is back as Bourne in another film packed with thrilling setpieces and innumerable double-crosses, but it doesn't really do anything noteworthy that the previous films hadn't already. | 6 |
 |
Lost Girls | 2020 | A true crime story that is sadly not very interesting to watch as it focuses more on the actions of the victims relatives than the investigation of the crime itself. It certainly has some emotion but is just not very gripping. | 5 |