Spencer James "Don't Shake A Baby"

Spencer James was the winner of the 2014 World Series of Comedy in Las Vegas and the Best of the Fest at the 2014 Burbank Comedy Festival. With these sorts of accolades, he has to be pretty darn funny, right? I recently got the opportunity to check out his recent comedy CD, "Don't Shake A Baby."

Growing up, I loved comedy albums. (Of course, I'm so old that these were actual records and not digital downloads.) As I got older, however, comedy albums got pushed aside for bubblegum pop. But I never lost my love of comedy. 

"Don't Shake A Baby" is a decent comedy album. There are some very funny jokes in there. My one complaint is that there are a few times when James makes visual references that we, obviously cannot see. I understand that this is basically just a recording of one of his live shows so there will always be a few things that the audio-only audience won't get. These moments should be kept to a minimum though. Otherwise, this is a very solid comedy album. It makes me want to see James perform live, which is what a good comedy album should do. It should make you want to run out and see the live show. I look forward to seeing James' comedy career explode into the mainstream.

I received a copy of this album for free. All opinions contained within are solely my own.

Jdorama review: Yankee-kun to Megane-chan

Title: Yankee-kun to Megane-chan Also known as: Flunk Punk Rumble Broadcast dates: 4/23/10 - 6/25/10 Number of episodes: 10 Genre: Comedy Cast: Narimiya Hiroki, Naka Riisa, Hongo Kanata, Koyanagi Yu, Kawaguchi Haruna Plot: Shinagawa Daichi (Narimiya) used to be a good student. Now he is a yankee deliquent. He meets Adachi Hana (Naka) and finds out her secret. She used to be a yankee. Adachi takes it upon herself to reform Shinagawa's bad habits. What is good: I love Narimiya's facial expressions! What is bad: Some of the side characters are a little one-dimensional. Letter rating: B

I heard a lot of good things about Yankee-kun to Megane-chan so I decided to give it a try. Thankfully, the series lived up to the rumors. Both Narimiya and Naka performed their roles beautifully. Not only did they handle the comedy bits well, they also had great chemistry together and pulled off the drama aspects too. I was a little disappointed in some of the secondary characters, but they are secondary so it doesn't detract from the series as a whole.

This is a definite must-watch.

Movie review: Cop Out

Cop Out is a comedy directed by Kevin Smith (of Clerks and Chasing Amy fame). Bruce Willis plays a cop who decides to sell his rare baseball card so he can pay for his daughter's expensive wedding after he gets suspended without pay. When his card is stolen, his jealousy-ridden partner (Tracy Morgan) helps him track down the thief.

I've watched almost all of the movies that Kevin Smith has directed and I've enjoyed them. I wasn't sure what to expect from Cop Out. Especially considering it's been awhile since Willis has done a comedy. Luckily, the stars have aligned themselves and the result is quite hysterical. Though, I have to admit, a good chunk of that credit is due to Morgan. His performance as Paul is comedic brilliance. It's been a rather long time since I laughed so hard. Definitely worth it!

TV review: Modern Family

Somehow I have forgotten to talk about THE best show of the season - Modern Family. The show is a look into an extended family with a sort of reality show spin to it. There are three separate households that are related to each other. There's Jay's (Ed O'Neill) house where he lives with his second wife, Gloria (Sofia Vergara), and her son, Manny (Rico Rodriguez). Then there's Claire's (Julie Bowen), Jay's oldest child from his first marriage, house. She lives with her husband Phil (Ty Burrell) and her three children, Hayley (Sarah Hyland), Alex (Ariel Winter), and Luke (Nolan Gould). Finally, there's Mitchell's (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) house. He lives with his partner Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) and their adopted baby girl, Lily.

The three households interact, much like any family would, but each is punctuated with a dialogue directed at the camera/crew. This gives the show a better look into the family dynamics. Instead of just showing the tense relationship between Jay and his out-of-the-closet son, Mitchell, there will be a scene focusing on how the pair interacts, but then the camera will cut to a monologue with each character separately telling how they relate to either each other or the situation. While this sounds like it could be boring, it's often the funniest part of each episode.

This mockumentary way of telling a story isn't particularly new. Christopher Guest does it in all of his movies. However, it is new to a weekly television series. It can be rather difficult to get the storyline across to the audience without getting distracted by the various monologues. Yet it works here. Both the writing and the acting is absolutely brilliant. The show airs on Wednesday nights at 9PM on ABC. I'm not sure if it's available on Hulu, but ABC often reruns episodes. You definitely need to catch this one!

Movie review: The Proposal

After a long day of running errands, my husband and I loaded up Netflix to see what looked interesting. Interestingly enough, they recently added The Proposal - a movie we both wanted to see but were too cheap to pay more than our monthly Netflix fee to see it - to the online streaming queue. So we snuggled up and clicked Play.

Andrew Paxton (Ryan Reynolds) is the young executive assistant to chief editor Margaret Tate (Sandra Bullock). Tate is a hardworking, pushy woman that is the target of much of her office's hatred. When she finds out that her visa has expired and she is about to be deported back to Canada, she forces Paxton to marry her. Knowing that she needs him, Paxton agrees...as long as she gives him a promotion and promises to publish his manuscript. The pair take a trip to Paxton's hometown in Alaska to break the news to his family during his grandmother's (Betty White) birthday party. Tate, who had been orphaned at 16, finds the heart that she had deeply hidden from everyone.

Yes, it is pretty much your standard romantic comedy. However, I firmly believe that this genre is where Sandra Bullock excels. And besides, the term "romantic comedy" doesn't automatically mean the movie will suck. Both my husband and I enjoyed the movie a lot. I thought that the on-screen chemistry between Reynolds and Bullock was amazing. Not only were they able to fight well, but they were also able to show that sexual tension that can exist between a man and a woman that argue constantly. Meanwhile, Betty White was fabulous as Paxton's grandmother. There needs to be more roles written for this brilliant woman. On the down side, I wasn't particularly fond of Mary Steenburgen as Paxton's mother or of Craig T. Nelson as his father. Despite knowing what these two actors are capable of, both of their performances came off wooden and bland. They are seriously just there to round out the "perfect family." Luckily, Nelson's character is barely there and Steenburgen's gets overshadowed by White so it's rather easy to ignore them altogether.

If you have about an hour and a half to kill, The Proposal isn't a terrible way to spend your time. Just don't expect to come away with a whole new look on life or anything. Enjoy it for what it is - a really good romantic comedy.

Movie review: Zombieland

Despite hearing nothing but rave reviews for it, I still didn't want to sit through Zombieland. Zombie movies aren't really my thing, but my husband loves them. After the first few minutes, he told me that I needed to watch this and restarted the movie.

The basic premise is that a virus has taken over the world. Almost everyone has turned into zombies. All of the characters (except for one well-placed cameo) are named after cities. The main character is called Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), since he is heading there to see if his parents are still alive. On the way, he meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a rather violent yet fun-loving guy in search of a mere Twinkie. Eventually, two sisters, Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), finish out the group. Together, they head toward California's Pacific Playland, where the sisters believe there are no zombies.

Zombieland is absolutely hysterical. I laughed my entire way through it. My husband was right. Everyone should see this movie. Even if you hate zombies, I'm pretty sure this will still be your new favorite film.

JDorama review: Kisarazu Cat's Eye: The Movie

Title: Kisarazu Cat's Eye: The Movie Release date: 11/2003 Genre: Comedy Cast: Okada Junichi, Sakurai Sho, Okada Yoshinori, Sato Ryuta, Tsukamoto Takashi Plot: Bussan (Junichi) is dying. His doctors continually tell him that he has six months left to live. Instead of being depressed, he lives life normally with his friends. What is good: There are some very funny moments. What is bad: The beginning of the movie is rather confusing. Letter rating: C+ Overall: I should start out by confessing that I have not watched the 9-episode drama that goes with the movie. This was just something I plucked off of Netflix without any expectations. As such, I was terribly confused for the first 45 minutes. Perhaps, if I was familiar with the series, I might have understood what was going on. Either way, the movie really picks up in the last half of the film. Once you can piece everything together and see how each event relates to other events, the movie is quite fun! I actually found myself staying up way past my bedtime just to find out how it ends. (I rarely stay up past my bedtime. I like sleep.) Now I need to track down the series so I can see what other adventurous mishaps this gang gets into!