Chad Hopkins

Chad Hopkins

My name is Chad, and I am a student studying music at Texas Tech University. I play the French horn, I sing, and I act sometimes too. I enjoy reading, watching movies, and playing the occasional video game. As far as music goes, I love The Beatles, Queen, MercyMe, Frank Sinatra, Michael Bublé, and, of course, film soundtracks. My favorite composers are John Williams, Michael Giacchino, and Alan Silvestri.

I created “ChadLikesMovies” as an outlet for my personal opinions on movies, their soundtracks, and the like because sharing my opinion on movies is something that I love to do. I also run “ChadTalksMovies,” a supplemental blog where I will offer additional commentary on movies, their soundtracks, and whatever else I find relevant.


Shows Hosted by Chad



 

Recent Reviews by Chad

Mr. Peabody & Sherman
3.5 of 5 stars
3-12-2014
The Way Way Back
4.5 of 5 stars
9-18-2013
Riddick
1 of 5 stars
9-11-2013
RED 2
3.5 of 5 stars
7-26-2013
R.I.P.D.
1.5 of 5 stars
7-24-2013
Now You See Me
4 of 5 stars
6-7-2013

Recent Entries by Chad

Mr. Peabody & Sherman — Review

3.5 of 5 stars
Mr. Peabody & Sherman

As you may have heard on Episode 81 of The MovieByte Podcast, I had to work hard to convince TJ to see this film rather than the much manlier 300: Rise of an Empire, which I have absolutely no interest in ever seeing. That being said, I was hopeful that this movie would be worth the money to see it in the theater, both for TJ’s and my sakes. While it may not have been as good as I had hoped, I do think that it ended up being a pretty decent family film that I would certainly say is worth the money. Note: a few spoilers ahead, but no major ones.

An Extraordinary Dog

Mr. Peabody & Sherman…

Read The Review

Chad’s ‘Divergent’ Trilogy Book Review

Chad’s ‘Divergent’ Trilogy Book Review
Chad Hopkins - ChadLikesMovies

Hey guys. As you should know, the film adaptation of the first book in Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy, titled Divergent (duh), is set to be released next week. The trailer alone didn’t get me interested at all even though I felt like I should be excited for what looked to be “the next Hunger Games.” In an attempt to remedy that, I read the whole trilogy this past week and loved it! For some non-spoilery thoughts on the trilogy as a whole, head on over to my site to read the full review. Here’s the general gist of it:

Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy continues to prove that the world of…

Read The Rest

Idina Menzel Sings “Let It Go” with Jimmy Fallon & The Roots

Idina Menzel Sings “Let It Go” with Jimmy Fallon & The Roots

You read my post earlier about how much I love Frozen, right? Well, what I didn’t say is this:

I’m sick of “Let It Go.”

Great song? For sure. Deserving of the Academy Award for Best Original Song? Totally. Idina Menzel sings it beautifully? Oh yeah.

But it has been so ridiculously overplayed over the past few months that I’m ready to just Let. It. Go. (I went there!) Despite all of that, I was so excited to hear Menzel perform it live on the Oscars this past Sunday, but I was incredibly underwhelmed, partially because I’m still tired of the song and partially because she didn’t sing it…

Read The Rest

Zack Snyder Addresses ‘Batman vs. Superman’ Casting Criticisms

Zack Snyder Addresses ‘Batman vs. Superman’ Casting Criticisms
Adam Chitwood - Collider

We all know what TJ’s opinion of last year’s Man of Steel is. I, on the other hand, enjoyed it well enough, though it certainly had its problems. That being said, I’m actually looking forward to the sequel film, unofficially titled/referred to as Batman vs. Superman

Of course, the talk of the town are the casting choices made so far, with both the selections of Ben Affleck as Batman (affectionately referred to as “Batfleck”) and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor receiving much criticism from fans around the world. Rest assured (?), friends, director Zack Snyder is here to quell your fears in…

Read The Rest

‘Frozen’ Passes $1 Billion at Box Office Following Oscar Win

‘Frozen’ Passes $1 Billion at Box Office Following Oscar Win

I really enjoyed Frozen. I’m talking “I-saw-it-three-times-in-theaters” enjoyed it. I’m talking “I-can-sing-most-of-the-songs-word-for-word” enjoyed it. I’M TALKI-

I think I’ve made my point.

Anyway, all of that goes to say that I’m not the only one who really enjoyed this film. For starters, our old friend Joe Darnell and I talked about it on Episode #72 of The MovieByte Podcast. It also won two awards at Sunday’s 86th Academy Awards - Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Song for “Let It Go,” sung by Idina Menzel (or, as John Travolta would have us believe, “Adele Dazim”) and…

Read The Rest

‘Minecraft’ Film Adaptation to be Developed by WB

‘Minecraft’ Film Adaptation to be Developed by WB
Adam Chitwood — Collider

I discovered Minecraft sometime last year and went through quite a long period of time of being addicted to what appears on the surface to be a rather simple game. For those of you out there who have given the survival/creation game a try know exactly what I’m talking about. 

Now what if I told you that the game was being adapted into a film? 

That’s right! Collider reports that Warner Bros. has acquired the film rights to this popular video game, hot off the success of the very successful The LEGO Movie.

Indeed, Deadline reports that Warner Bros. has tapped LEGO Movie co-producer Roy Lee…

Read The Rest

Harold Ramis Passes Away at 69

Harold Ramis Passes Away at 69
Variety

Harold Ramis, best known as an actor in “Ghostbusters” and “Stripes” and a writer/director for “Caddyshack” and “Groundhog Day” died Monday died today from complications related to auto-immune inflammatory vasculitis, a disease he battled for four years. He was 69.

I’m really sad, guys. Ghostbusters is one of my favorite comedy movies, and I also like Groundhog Day quite a bit. Ramis has been trying to make Ghostbusters 3 for several years now, but I doubt that it will ever be seen through now that he is gone. 

Rest in peace.

‘LEGO Movie’ Sequel Set for May 2017 Release

‘LEGO Movie’ Sequel Set for May 2017 Release
Andrew Sims - Hypable

Warner Bros. has set a release date for The Lego Movie sequel as it continues to perform well at the box office.

The yet-to-be-titled Lego Movie follow-up will hit theaters May 26, 2017.

The words “perform well” are just a bit of an understatement at this point - the first one has grossed a worldwide total of $275.7 million so far. In case you weren’t keeping count, that’s more than four times its production budget of only $60 million.

If you listen to Episode 79 of The MovieByte Podcast, you can hear TJ, Joe, and me all rave about how much we all loved this movie…and you can also hear…

Read The Rest

‘Space Jam 2’ Possibly in the Works for Some Reason

‘Space Jam 2’ Possibly in the Works for Some Reason
Anita Busch — Deadline

According to Deadline.com, a sequel to the 1996 Warner Bros. film Space Jam is in the works, with Lebron James set to star. 

Another Space Jam film? Why not? The first film, which broke ground for Warner Bros and starred then-Chicago Bulls star Michael Jordan and a slew of other top NBA players, ended up grossing $230M worldwide for the studio.

Charlie Ebersol, who already has a good relationship with the NFL through his NFL Characters Unite series on USA Network, is about ready to do the same with the NBA. He has been brought on to the produce the picture through his production company,…

Read The Rest

Final Episodes of ‘Breaking Bad’ Available for Streaming on Netflix

Final Episodes of ‘Breaking Bad’ Available for Streaming on Netflix

As of midnight PST, the final critically-acclaimed episodes of the popular AMC show Breaking Bad, starring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, are now available for streaming over on Netflix! In other words, as of today, you have no (good) excuse to not sit down and binge-watch the entire series!

In all seriousness, if you listen to The MovieByte Podcast, you know that I don’t get around to watching many television shows, so it’s rare for me to endorse a show like this. I started watching Breaking Bad in December 2012, not expecting to like it much, but I ended up loving it. Now, having seen the…

Read The Rest