This review was made possible by an advance copy of the WWE 2K23 Icon Edition. Thank you  to 2K Games! 

In a recent article, I used the expression, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” in the context of a sequel that attempted to replicate the success of its predecessor but ultimately failed to do so. The WWE 2K series has been filled with its ups and downs — WWE 2K20 is about as low as you can get — but WWE 2K22 was a massive step in the right direction after 2K took a year off between 2K20 and 2K22. And sometimes, a fresh coat of paint is all that’s required with a dash of improvements to make for a great game, and WWE 2K23 is proof of that. 

Beginning with the gameplay, 2K23 remains very similar to last year’s game. The mechanics are all the same, which works since 2K22 was a nice return to simplicity and found a happy medium between arcade-like controls and simulation. I’ll never quite understand why 2K took out the chain grappling at the beginning of matches — I lapsed from WWE from 2K15 until 2K20 — but that would be something nice to have in the future since not every match begins with the pacing of a Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg. It would especially benefit the PLE main events that have a “big fight feel,” as Michael Cole likes to say as the crowd is going nuts and the wrestlers in the ring are going through the “feeling out” process. 

The ability to have two Payback abilities is nice — for example, you can use the “Low Blow” and “Comeback” features and not have to choose between the two. It’s especially helpful in Universe Mode matches when you want to link together real spots. 

Speaking of Universe Mode, much like the rest of the game, it looks quite similar to last year’s game. But one key addition is the new “Rivalry Actions.” While promos are still absent — something that would really bring this mode together — these scenarios allow players to choose certain scenarios to play out pre, post, or during a match. For example, you can extend a rivalry after a big match on a PLE (the option to choose the length of rivalries is no longer in the game), or you can choose a scenario like a post-match attack that’ll take a superstar out of action for a set amount of months. The scenario that plays out is decided by factors such as momentum in the rivalry, but there’s also an option for “Free Mode” which will allow you to choose which one happens. 

The “Rivalry Actions” are a great addition to the game, giving new life to some of the cutscenes in previous WWE 2K installments while also bringing in a whole new batch of them. Promos would go the extra mile in making these storylines really come to life, but for now, the “Rivalry Actions” suffice. 

But 2K23 is not without its bugs. Luckily, none of these are as bad as the lows of 2K20, and I’m sure they’ll be patched with time. The first is the managers and their unreliable nature. When I assign Paul Heyman as Roman Reigns’ manager, I expect to see him walk out with his Tribal Chief and utilize the amazing entrance specific to this combination. But half of the time, Reigns comes out alone and it’s incredibly frustrating. Or if you choose two managers, only one will come out more times than not. 

The AI can also be incredibly frustrating. I play on “Legend” difficulty, as the disparity between “Hard” and “Legend” is massive with the former being too easy, but multi-man matches are more frustrating than in previous years. Take the Royal Rumble match, for instance, which has always been tough to nail. Even in 2K22, there’d be occasions where the AI opponents would randomly crash the party and break up your moves. In 2K23, the AI opponents never focus on one target and break up any move happening in the ring. It makes it frustrating if you’re trying to throw someone out and get interrupted by someone who was just fighting someone in the opposite corner. The “stunned” meter is back, but definitely expedited. I never had an issue with people in multi-man matches rolling out of the ring for a minute, but because of how quickly the meter moves, you hardly have a chance for a one-on-one encounter in the ring in multi-man matches. Sure, it moves the match along, but using your fifth finisher and not being able to go for a pin is incredibly frustrating. 

The small details are what save the day. The biggest one that stands out is how the champions — who traditionally come to the ring last — will usually wait a moment before their music hits. It’s a tactic that Reigns usually uses in real life, and it’s cool to see it replicated here. That extra 10 seconds between the challenger and champion’s entrance makes the match feel special. 

And massive props to the developers for nailing the aesthetics. Character models look great, but the arenas, and now stadiums, are what really catches my eye. It’s unlikely we’ll ever get the uber-long entrance ramp that WWE’s stadium shows like the Royal Rumble or SummerSlam have, but they adapted and nailed the stages of those shows and Clash at the Castle (the one I was most anticipating). A small nitpick from a New Yorker, the default stadium — which typically was just Metflife Stadium in previous games — now is Metlife Stadium with a roof like the Alamodome. Most won’t care or even notice, but it’s a thought that came to mind when playing through the PLEs.

New to the WWE 2K series is the WarGames match. Apparently, it has been around since the WCW days, but it’s been used more recently on NXT. Last year’s Survivor Series PLE rebranded and utilized the match in its opening and closing matches, but due to it taking place in November, it’s a welcomed surprise to have it not only in the game but playable in the Universe mode. For those unfamiliar with this match, the WarGames match is when two teams of either three or four in 2K23 face off. One member of the team is introduced at a time — giving one team an inherent disadvantage — but the official match doesn’t begin until all of the members of each team have entered the ring. It’s really fun just like the real-life version was in November. Hopefully, the WWE continues to utilize the match in real-life and the 2K games.

MyRise got a nice refresh with a story that hits the ground running. I think it has become clear that the idea of working your way up the ranks from the Performance Center is both tired and monotonous in video game form. Last year’s MyRise was brutal to get through; you had to do a certain amount of objectives before moving on to the next part of the story similar to what the NBA 2K’s MyGM has become. 

This year’s Showcase mode is centered around John Cena. It’s a nice sign of self-awareness by 2K and Cena himself to allow for players to play as the opponents in these historical recreations given that “SuperCena” was a thing, and the developers once again nail the aesthetics to recreate all of Cena’s marquee moments. Hopefully, next year’s title will include a Bloodline Showcase.

MyGM got some updates, but controlling the shows is a lot less fun than the sandbox-like playstyle of Universe mode. You’re given a budget to control Raw or Smackdown, which is cool in theory, but outside of the draft, it’s hardly riveting. At least they came to their senses and added more than one-on-one matches to it.

The biggest dud of 2K23 has to be MyFaction. I’ve never been one for the Ultimate Team modes in the Fifa or Madden franchises or the NBA 2K’s equivalent, MyTeam, and I really don’t understand the appeal of a wrestling version of it outside of the updated aesthetics that certain models get since wrestlers change their outfits all the time and their in-game models usually stay stagnant.

One last miss for me is the new pin system. The button-mashing option is still there — though I would rather not break my $75 controller — so that leaves you with the new, refreshed timing option. In previous years you had to press the “X” or “A” button when the white bar reached the red area, this year it’s similar except that the red area moves. It obviously gets smaller and moves faster the more damage you’ve taken, and you have to flip the right stick up when in that area (though I just opt to use the “X” button regardless). It’s incredibly infuriating, which maybe is the point, but not being able to kick out after a signature move has made me as angry as Jey Uso when Sami Zayn turned his back on the Bloodline.

A common complaint with yearly sports video games is that they’re glorified “roster updates” (to be fair, roster updates are more important in wrestling games but I digress), but 2K23 is another big step in the right direction after 2K22 set the entire series back on track. 2K23 is a very “Ucey” and one that we all have to acknowledge.

WWE 2K23 is available now.

About halfway through John Wick: Chapter 4, Winston (Ian McShane) asks the question that all cinemagoers seeing the film will be asking: “When does it end?” Granted, in the context of the film, he’s asking what the endgame for John Wick (Keanu Reeves) is, seeing that his hopes of gaining freedom dwindle by the hour, but that same question can be asked with the heavyweight blockbuster that is Chapter 4. The nearly three-hour epic is jam-packed with some amazing choreography and cinematography, Western influences and a globe-trotting adventure that takes John all around from Osaka, Berlin and Paris. At its peak, Chapter 4 is the embodiment of what action blockbusters should be — much like its predecessors, along with Mad Max: Fury Road and Bullet Train — but it also falls victim to some of the issues that hamper the other John Wick sequels that bog it down. Let’s not confuse spectacle for quality, folks. 

As most of the John Wick sequels do, Chapter 4 picks up soon after the events of Parabellum; John is left for dead after Winston shot him, and he’s left to pick up the pieces and discover his way out of this life of running. Luckily, there may be a way for John to earn his freedom, but standing in the way is a bevy of obstacles, including former friends who are now foes. 

In true fashion to its predecessors, John’s journey feels like swimming against the tide. Every sequence that sees him run through nameless bounty hunters and soldiers leaves you catching your breath before an influx of more begins coming after him. The pacing of the action scenes has always been good in the series, but Chapter 4 is a pure adrenaline rush when the foot is on the gas. There are a ton of different people to shout out, but Laurent Demianoff, the fight choreographer/stunt coordinator, and Stephen Dunlevy, another stunt coordinator, really deserve their flowers. 

However, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The choreography is great, just look at the Berlin club sequence, but the fight sequences are heavily enhanced by the cinematography of Dan Laustsen — who has shot each of the sequels. It’s style over substance if we’re being real. There’s one particular sequence in an old building that’s like a video game (in the most flattering way possible). We get a bird’s eye view of John as he mows through people like how most Call of Duty players at the top of leaderboards think they look. It’s a bit dizzying, but this was a unique way of framing it. You also appreciate the choreography more since you can see all of the things in motion on-screen. 

The Call of Duty analogy also carries over to the action itself. Following John as he runs through nameless bad guys can get repetitive, but the framing and the music are what keep you enthralled. A lot of the kills are just bullets to the face and nunchucks (my favorite weapon in the series) being swung. It’s just mindless if you really break it down (albeit fun), yet we want to call this the best action movie ever. 

Chapter 4‘s best set piece, which deserves its own mention, is one the one that takes place at the Place Charles de Gaulle. If you thought New Jersey has the worst roundabouts, just wait until you see this! It’s like Grand Theft Auto meets Crossy Road in a sequence that’ll have you on the edge of your seat as cars zoom by the action.

But at the end of the day, while the spectacle elements of the film are great, what really makes these scenes different than the action sequences in the previous films? Just because the John Wick films are notoriously visceral doesn’t make each sequel the “best action movie ever,” a phrase repeated on Twitter ad nauseam. While not the same type of action movie, I think that the Mission: Impossible movies give the John Wick films a run for their money.

Plus, a lot of the action sequences are homages to films that have come before. Much like how Quentin Tarantino has paid homage to Westerns (more on this later) and Japanese films in almost all of his films, the John Wick films owe a lot to the films that have come before. Technology is on the side of John Wick, but some of Bruce Lee’s classics are just as exhilarating and innovative with their action.  

Chapter 4 even borrows from Parabellum. I love the first act of Parabellum for the way it throws John to the wolves in the city that never sleeps. It’s an enthralling chase that Chapter 4 seeks to replicate — just replacing the city that never sleeps with the city of lights. They have their differences, sure, but it did feel a bit redundant outside of its usage of “Paint It, Black” (how have we not used that in one of these films?). 

On the Western front, one thing Chapter 4 isn’t afraid of is putting its Western influences on full display. Sure, all of the John Wick films have Westerns in their DNA — John himself is akin to a Clint Eastwood-type character minus some of the bravado — but much like how Parabellum ended with an ode to Game of Death, Chapter 4 pays homage to the Westerns of the past. Even the score — co-composed by Tyler Bates (Pearl) and Joel J. Richard (John Wick) — infuses Americana guitar picking into its pieces. These composers are smart, and they pick their spots well. There are plenty of isolated scenes where the sounds of the fight happening on-screen are all that’s heard. Other times, the Western-sounding score is weaved in naturally into scenes. 

All of this is said before even touching on Reeves and the rest of the cast. Reeves is his usual self — a rare case of a movie star who’s bulletproof because of his public persona. He’s just such a likable guy, on and off the screen, that you can’t help but root for him. That’s not to say he has improved much as an actor — he emotes roughly the same when he’s being choked by a rope and when he’s not — but again, who doesn’t love Keanu? And he’s good at this whole action thing, which is all you need in a film like Chapter 4. It’s not like the writers ever try and make Reeves do anything beyond his limitations, after all.

Donnie Yen is the biggest standout of the newcomers. He’s an assassin for the High Table who happens to be blind, but his resourcefulness pays off more times than not. Yen is the best at martial arts in the film, hands down, and outclasses the rest of the cast (though Rina Sawayama as Akira gives him a run for his money). He’s never static in his movements and is the most vibrant from a physical standpoint in the film. Hiroyuki Sanada plays Shimazu, the manager of the Osaka Continental Hotel and Akira’s father. He’s another standout in his limited screen time. My main takeaway from Chapter 4 is that I’ve been gaslit into questioning whether all of these “old friends” have been in previous entries or not.

One cast member that I know is returning is McShane as Winston. His role has continued down the trend of spewing the necessary exposition for our main character. He’s like an NPC in a boring video game, though, because his dialogue is so bland with his character in particular that he makes a duel sound mundane. It’s unfortunate that writers, Shay Hatten and Michael Finch — who served as two of the four writers on Parabellum — couldn’t find more ways to make his dialogue seem more organic rather than him word-vomiting anything important that John needs to hear. It’s sad because I don’t ever remember Winston being this much of a tool; perhaps Derek Kolstad’s presence is missed. 

Not that any of these films have had stupendous dialogue, but Hatten and Finch’s script does stand out as weaker than some of the previous films — it’s not just Winston, either. The worst line, by far, is when someone calls John “unlucky” (at least that’s what I heard) after he fell 20 feet onto concrete. I’m not sure if this was supposed to be ironic, but no one laughed if that was the case.

I’ll give the writers some credit for the themes they tackle. John has to face the consequences of his actions — something that many franchises veer away from. Even if John himself is practically bulletproof, the things he’s done have a butterfly effect on those closest to him. I applaud the effort, even if it doesn’t always fully pay off, as the likes of Marvel and DC would’ve just put him through the wringer before simply giving him a happy ending full of neat bows and resolution.

Bill Skarsgård is looking more like Joe Burrow than ever as Marquis de Gramont, a member of the High Table who’s attempting to wipe out John. While many fell in love with this campy performance, he’s your typical overzealous and sloppy leader. He’s fine, but he’s not given much to do other than act “menacing” every 25 minutes or so. 

Which could have been remedied had the runtime been more concise. At a hefty 169 minutes, Chapter 4 is by far the longest of the series and still left more to be desired from Laurence Fishburne and Shamier Anderson (who plays a new character called Nobody). Was it necessary to blow the other runtimes out of the water, though? Parabellum pushed it with the 131-minute runtime, but the extra 40 minutes in Chapter 4 are filled with fluff. After an exhilarating first act, the film hits a lull in the second until things are done to set the third act into motion. From there, it’s once again pedal-to-the-metal, but that second act really could have been trimmed. This is an issue present in both Chapter 2 and Parabellum and not exclusive to Chapter 4, though.

While mixed on Chapter 4, I’d lean more positive because of how fun the action can be (hey, I’m not a complete downer!). No, it’s not the greatest action movie ever, but it mostly sticks the landing of this arc of one John Wick. If anything, the runtime and the writing hold this film back from greatness. Where the franchise goes from here will be interesting, but hopefully, we won’t have to wait too much longer to hear Reeves start a line with “Yeah.” 

John Wick: Chapter 4 will be released in theaters on March 24.

Being trapped in a luxurious apartment in Manhattan that overlooks the beautiful Big Apple sounds like the dream for many. In fact, that was the reality for the top 1% that live in New York City. But what can be one man’s dream can also be another man’s nightmare — just ask Willem Dafoe in his new film, Inside (no, not the Bo Burnham comedy special with a song about Jeff Bezos). Inside is the new psychological thriller directed by Vasillis Katsoupis and stars Dafoe in what’s basically a one-man show that begs the all-important question of What if you modernized Robert Eggers’ The Lighthouse?  

While many films can be simplified when describing their plots, Inside may take the cake in terms of stories that are easy to follow. “Art is for keeps,” says Nemo (Dafoe), an experienced art thief. When a job goes wrong, is stuck inside the penthouse of an affluent man who’s on a business trip. Being that the alarm was set off, Nemo’s left with nothing but his wits and own instincts to survive. 

And what better actor is there to play a man descending into madness in isolation than Dafoe? It feels like half of his roles have included some bit of his performance in Inside (even The Card Counter came to mind). Nemo begins stressed and anxious when the alarms first ring but soon becomes more content once the realization that he’s stuck sinks in (he comes around to “Macarena,” which plays every time the refrigerator is opened). Throughout the 105-minute runtime, Nemo adapts and begins attempting to find ways out. Bear in mind, he’s left with no running water once the alarm goes off; resulting in him using bowls and buckets to collect water from the in-house garden hoses. But as the film progresses and the despair further sets in, Nemo does too. Dafoe’s a very visceral performer, and he really sells the wear and tear that Nemo endures — like when he begins reciting a stand-up routine to an audience of none.

Credit is also due to director Katsoupis and cinematographer Steve Annis. Unlike The Lighthouse, which was constrained in terms of scope, relatively speaking, Inside really has a big sandbox to play in. It feels as though we go through every nook and cranny of the penthouse with Nemo in the film, even uncovering some dark secrets along the way, and the frames are meaningful. Whether it’s the framing of the imprisoned Nemo on one side of the glass and a bird — who is completely free — or the subtlety of the phrases in neon lights on many of the walls, there are little frames that are useless. 

The score, or lack thereof, was an interesting choice that pays off. Frederik van de Moortel composed the score, and for the first half of the film, it’s barely present. As the film builds toward its crescendo, so does the score, but the soft piano keys that occasionally ring through are perfectly timed. The lack of score further emphasizes the noiseless atmosphere that Nemo is enduring. 

I guess all of this was an effort to make Inside as suffocating as it can be. An introvert’s dream really does become the stuff of nightmares as Inside progresses, but that’s also where the film runs into some issues. While a 105-minute film is never something to take for granted — try seeing TÁR, Decision to Leave and White Noise within 24 hours — there becomes a point in Inside where the mundane becomes monotonous. It’s abundantly clear that Nemo isn’t getting out anytime soon, but eventually, it feels as though the viewer is just vegging out in this gigantic living room. 

That’s not to say that Inside never attempts to give Nemo some backstory, but it’s clearly something that Katsoupis — who directed and created the story — and writer Vasilis Katsoupis were clearly uninterested in exploring further. With a film like Inside, which primarily takes place in one location, you have an important decision to make: Do you stay indoors for 100% of the runtime like 12 Angry Men, or do you elongate the film’s runtime and try to give characters more background? In this case, I’d rather have no background explicitly shown and leave it to Dafoe and his wonderful voice-over work to fill in the blanks. 

The idea of Nemo’s fixation on art and it being everlasting should have and could have been explored further. The fact that he’s stuck in a penthouse full of art and that the one constant in his life is his sketchbook paves the way for an interesting theme that’s not fully explored. 

A one-man show of just Dafoe may be too much for some, but he’s awesome as usual. He single-handedly makes this particular character study watchable, but it’s a great concept that’s stretched thin throughout its runtime. 

Inside will be released in theaters on March 17.