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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Salem's Lot | 1979 | Over-long scenes, shaky editing and below-par effects lay bare its TV movie origins, but the main actors are good and the latter half does still have some effective moments, even though it's far more amusing than it was in its time. | 6 |
 |
Missing Link | 2019 | It's hard to comprehend this is really stop-motion animation at times, but it is impressive, packed with charm and some high quality voice acting. Plot-wise it is fairly generic but there's enough action and humour to entertain young and old. | 6 |
 |
Fear Street Part One: 1994 | 2021 | The plot is obviously inspired by 90s slashers like Scream, with a great alt-rock soundtrack accompanying the gory action, but the wider back story of a town cursed for centuries sets up a smart mythology that allows for more stories to be told. | 7 |
 |
Run Hide Fight | 2020 | Starts off as if it has something to say about how easily a high school shooting can take place and the desire for social media stardom, but ultimately turns out to be a more generic Die Hard-style action thriller with an admittedly kick-ass female hero. | 6 |
 |
Gunpowder Milkshake | 2021 | Elements of Kill Bill and Kingsman are blended in a vibrant, relentless action thriller with some brilliantly choreographed violence and a talented mostly-female cast. Hardly the most original film but it's a lot of fun. | 7 |
 |
Halloween II | 1981 | All the subtlety of the original is discarded in favour of more gore and an elevated body count, making this no better than the films the first one inspired. That said, it is still watchable with some great cinematography and an even creepier score. | 6 |
 |
Fear Street Part Three: 1666 | 2021 | Serving as both an origin story and a conclusion to the first film, the move away from slasher movie to occult horror makes this less fun for the first half, but the twist is well done and the finale nicely wraps up an inventive and well made trilogy. | 7 |
 |
Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers | 1988 | Pretty standard slasher movie fare for the era, with limited gore to satisfy the censors, this is about as good as any of the other Halloween sequels as Michael Myers pursues his niece who is well played by young Danielle Harris. | 6 |
 |
The Pact | 2012 | The acting is not the best but this modestly-budgeted film builds up an ominous feeling with its cinematography and audio, the story has some clever twists and there's some smart use of technology within it too. It's also very creepy at times! | 6 |
 |
Fear Street Part Two: 1978 | 2021 | The history of the Shadyside curse is explored further in classic summer camp slasher movie style, with the visuals and music well on point. Fans of such films will be entertained but once again it's the bigger story that makes this more interesting. | 7 |
 |
Lords of Chaos | 2018 | This fascinating dramatisation of a dark period in the history of heavy music mixes gruesome, shocking scenes with some that are quite humorous, which helps reinforce just how silly these people's antics were back in the 90s. | 7 |
 |
The Guilty | 2021 | The concept is quite smart with most of the events left to the viewer's imagination, but Gyllenhaal's character is too obnoxious to get behind and the story gets more and more ridiculous until the fairly predictable twist ending. | 5 |
 |
The Omen | 1976 | As with many 70s films, the exposition is painfully slow at times but the acting is great, the story and lore is clever and it is ominously effective without being especially scary. | 7 |
 |
Red Notice | 2021 | Johnson, Reynolds and Gadot turn in exactly the performances you'd expect in a well-made, entertaining but completely formulaic 'event movie' that certainly wasn't worth the money spent to make it. | 6 |
 |
Out of the Blue | 2006 | This harrowing recreation of one of New Zealand's most tragic events conveys the sense of panic and bewilderment that the community must have felt really effectively, along with the gunman's mental state as he remorselessly kills his neighbours. | 7 |
 |
Window Wonderland | 2013 | The premise has potential but after an amusing opening, this reverts to the usual romantic festive fodder that Hallmark is famous for. Perfectly watchable if you know what to expect. | 5 |
 |
Jungle Cruise | 2021 | Delivers pretty much what you'd expect from a movie inspired by a theme park ride, with the influence of Indiana Jones and The African Queen pretty blatant. The cast is good but the over-use of CGI sequences and long running time don’t do it any favours | 6 |
 |
The Dead Don’t Die | 2019 | Funny at times and downright bizarre at others, the most impressive thing about this film is how the producers managed to convince high calibre stars like Murray and Driver to be involved, and the intentionally nonchalant approach they took to it. | 6 |
 |
Christmas at Dollywood | 2019 | A formulaic Hallmark Christmas movie that could have been a fantastic advertisement for Dollywood if only they'd actually shot more than about ten minutes in the park! | 4 |
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Santa Stole Our Dog | 2017 | The acting is poor at times and some of the SFX are terrible, but to be fair this is less patronising than the average kids Christmas movie and kudos to the producers for bringing Ed Asner in to play Santa. | 5 |
 |
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York | 1992 | Largely a retread of the first film in a new environment, the blend of Looney Tunes style violence and more heartwarming moments is odd but works about as well as it did in the original, though by the end you'll be sympathising with the hapless villains. | 6 |
 |
Free Guy | 2021 | The GTA-style game environment is realised well and the film does pose interesting moral questions about Artifical Intelligence, but the real-world technology elements are poorly portrayed and Taika Waititi's character is just horrendous. | 6 |
 |
Bumblebee | 2018 | Refocusing as an 80s adventure movie and the robots looking more like the original toys make this the best live action Transformers film since the first one, so while the story is quite generic I'd happily watch more films like this in the franchise. | 6 |
 |
Chef | 2014 | Starts off more like a cookery show than a film, but once it gets going this a great feelgood road movie that celebrates how the love of food can bring people together. | 7 |
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Black Widow | 2021 | More low-key and grounded than any of the Phase 3 MCU movies, this is quite a refreshing change and while the story is quite predictable, good performances from the newcomers and some decent action sequences make this a worthy swansong for the character. | 7 |