A Tale of Two Coreys

This was a VERY B-movie retelling of the relationship between Corey Feldman and Corey Haim, including the start of their teen friendship during the '80s, their rise to fame and their struggles with drugs, partying, and the untimely death of Haim in 2010. No real secrets given away here and also a one sided telling through the eyes of Corey Feldman alone.

This is a very basic movie, it watches sorta like a behind the music documentary with dramatizations of the situations/years unfolding. The acting is bad and the story disjointed or with a skipped over storytelling style. We see their first movie roles, their families, the partying, the drugs, the abuse, its sad.

We get glimpses of Michael Jackson, (nothing given away there) and both Feldman and Haim are sexually abused by industry men who are meant to be watching after them. If this movie had been made 10 years ago the scandal and focus would have been on the drug abuse now its sexual abuse. The very sad thing about this is that both of these guys were just used up and spit out by the industry. I remember watching the reality show The Two Coreys which for the most part focused on Haim trying to get or stay sober and break back into Hollywood. Sadly he lost his fight, this is briefly touched on here. The ending is haunting.

Last night I watched the Lifetime movie "A Tale of Two Coreys," yet another tiresome story of promising Hollywood careers derailed by drug use. The promising Hollywood careers that got derailed were those of young actors Corey Feldman and Corey Haim, who met while appearing in the film "The Lost Boys," became bosom buddies and were frequently bracketed in teen-idol magazines as "The Two Coreys." The Lifetime movie about then was directed by Steven Huffaker from a script by an even larger writing committee than usual: the story is credited to Feldman himself along with Tejal Desai, Jeffrey Schenck. Peter Sullivan and Henry Wassenburger, and Schenck, Sullivan, Wassenburger and Jessica Dube are credited with the screenplay (and on screen the writers' names are linked with ampersands rather than the word "and," meaning that they all worked on the script together instead of taking it over relay-style one from the other). It's narrated in flashbacks by both Feldman, who's still alive and sat for an interview that was taped and aired after the movie; and Haim, who died from pneumonia in 2010 after a lifelong struggle with drug abuse. The producers and casting directors Dean E. Frank and Donald Paul Penrick double-cast the parts of Feldman and Haim, with Elijah Marcano and Justin Ellings playing Feldman and Haim (in that order) as teenagers and Scott Bosely and Casey Leach playing them as adults. Elijah Marcano is a hauntingly beautiful young man who doesn't look either like the real Corey Feldman in his teens - quite frankly, his ethereal baby face and long brown hair would have made him better casting for a biopic of David Cassidy than of Corey Feldman - and he also doesn't look like he'd grow up to be the nice-bodied but rather hatchet-faced Scott Bosely. Justin Ellings doesn't look like he'll grow up to look like his adult counterpart, Casey Leach, though for my money Leach was by far the sexiest of the four: tall, blond, muscular, butch and also quite strikingly reminiscent of the surviving film of the older Corey Haim.

For the most part "A Tale of Two Coreys" is a pretty-standard issue "Behnd the Music" story of a promising young talent (in this case, two promising young talents) wrecking their careers by partying, clubbing, sex, drinking and, most destructively, drugging. But there are two distinguishing characteristics that set it apart from most addiction narratives. One is how vividly it demonstrates that child actors are really commodities, controlled both by their bosses and their parents; in one chilling scene, Feldman comes home after three classmates bullied and badly beat him when he bragged to them about landing a major movie role - and his mom sees the bruises on his face and, rather than say anything supportive, chews him out for having got into a fight that bruised his highly valuable face and risked him getting replaced in that big role. Both Feldman and Haim came from broken homes; Feldman's parents divorced before he started his career and Haim's broke up while he was just taking off as a young actor - and Feldman's dad was an aspiring rock musician and his son's manager until Feldman abruptly fired him after realizing his dad was just taking his money and pushing him off into quick-buck projects that would bring in short-term income but be bad for his long-term career. The breaking point came when Feldman's good friend Michael Jackson told him it was stupid for Feldman to appear on the quiz show "The Hollywood Squares" because "that's something you do at the end of your career," but dad remained firm that Feldman do that show and not even Michael Jackson himself, dressed in the costume he wore on the cover of Bad and played by Brandon Howard (who looks "blacker" than the real Jackson did at that point but gets the famously whispery speaking voice down pat), can talk Feldman père out of pushing his son onto a humiliating gig.

The other unusual part of this film - and one which makes it particularly relevant in the so-called "moment" in which America in general and Hollywood in particular are becoming more aware of, and more sensitive to, charges of sexual harassment and the heads of once-powerful people are rolling as they get ousted from their jobs and positions of power following revelations of their records of sexual misconduct over the years - is the allegation that both Feldman and Haim were raped early in their careers, before they were over the age of consent, by the people who were supposedly on the sets of their films to chaperone and protect them. Indeed, though the story is only obliquely hinted at in the movie itself, Feldman is more explicit about it in his post-film intervie2, saying that both straight and Gay pedophilia is the real dark secret of Hollywood. Though he's still too scared of the man who raped him to mention his name - he says the man is still a power player in the industry and could literally have him killed, which is why, he told his interviewer, he has at least one bodyguard (and usually more than one) on duty all the time, including at home when he sleeps - he describes himself as "a man on a mission" to expose the rampant pedophilia in Hollywood and drive its perpetrators from power. Given that memoirs of classic Hollywood have exposed such legendary names from the past as David O. Selznick, Arthur Freed and John Huston as pedophiles, I can readily believe everything Feldman is saying. Both the film and Feldman's post-film interview make clear that not only is the "casting couch" alive and well, but young men are as likely to be the victims of it as young women

Don't bother with this movie there is no moral to the story what's so ever, no climax to story, simply BLAND! Wasted an hour and a half of my life.......

Both "Corey's" are certainly great actors. But this film is a straight up "no", better yet a huge "NO". This film makes me upset. Why?

But correct me if I'm wrong but this story seems to be told only from Corey Feldman's point of view.Basically one sided. And my issue is, what makes him think that he has every right to say what happened in Corey Hiam's life when most of the time he wasn't there. Sure we know about the drugs and the sex and the abuse that was going on from both homes. But come on Feldman you could have done better than this.

However I do like how he explains that Michael Jackson was a kind gentle person ( as we the audience and some knew already ). And I really liked that. But on Corey Haim's part, I don't think the film did him any justice. Yes they were best friends but the film could have been a little less BS and I just wish this film wasn't all for how Corey Feldman "believes" he was a good friend to Corey Haim.

I am the exact age of the two Coreys and had their pictures hanging all over my room. I was happy to see this Lifetime movie made. I was upset when the Two Corey's reality show displayed Corey Haim as a drug addict that could not get over his issues being a 40 year old adult. I lost my love for him and believe that Corey Feldman did the right thing by not allowing drugs to come back into his life and possibly having a midlife. He is a strong person, a true survivor. This Movie shows fans how Corey Haim got to that place in his life. Mothers can only protect your children so much and it is sad that this was allowed in Hollywood. It is shameful and sickening. I find it hard to believe that there were no witnesses to this behavior. These kids needed protection and you can't tell me that people were not around that could have stopped this. How many people does it take to make a movie? Hundreds. Shame on those people for not noticing or being silent. I hope that Corey F. knows what a brave person he is and hope he knows understands how many kids he will save by speaking out. I would be sick if this had happened to one of my kids, and most likely dead of an overdose if it would have happened to me. Corey Haim would be proud of his friend. Even though Haim's mother is mad, she will never understand and only see it from a mother's view. She should be thankful to Corey F. This movie was a great tribute to Corey Haim and his fans now understand what he went through. It was better to end this way, than on the Reality two Corey's. I cried hard after it was over. To: Corey Feldman. Thank you for clearing up Michael Jackson's name! You have no idea the pain & doubt that you lifted for his fans and I am so sorry for all your loses that you have endured in your life. Thank you!