A serial killer on the loose. The killer has a pattern – he/she brutally maims the target, leaving them with a gory smiling face. Enter a high-ranking police officer diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, who has only one year before his memory fades forever. Now, this is a story that has the potential to be developed into a high-octane thriller with twists and turns. But, does Sarath Kumar’s 150th film, The Smile Man, live up to expectations? Let’s find out!

Chidambaram Nedumaran (Sarath Kumar), a CBCID officer, is recuperating from an injury. To make matters worse, he’s been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and has just one year left to preserve his memories. Before his injury, he was involved in the investigation of The Smile Man case. While he is trying to adapt to his new lifestyle with memory loss, a series of similar killings take place, forcing Chidambaram to reopen the case.

This time, however, Chidambaram must battle his declining health while investigating the case to unmask the killer. Why was the Smile Man case closed before his injury? Is there anything more than what meets the eye? Who is the killer, and what is their motive?

Director duo Syam and Praveen’s The Smile Man has a solid story at its core, though it might remind you of thrillers, Ratsasan and Por Thozhil. A serial killer story has a predictable template, but a film can stand out from the crowd because of the way the story and screenplay are treated. That way, The Smile Man is an illogical thriller that reeks of amateur making. The killer leaves a smiling scarred face on the victims and the pattern should ideally shock the audience. But, the poor prosthetic makeup hardly makes it look menacing.

Here’s the trailer:

The portrayal of journalists in The Smile Man is poor, anf the dialogue is one of the film’s biggest drawbacks. For example, the CBCID officer casually throws around words like ‘copycat killer’ without any solid basis. The reasons given are so futile that it forces you to not take the characters seriously.

The killer’s face is hidden for half of the film, and when it is eventually revealed, it fails to deliver any excitement. Similarly, the killer’s motive and his backstory are told and not shown. The justification hardly makes sense and one could spot a lot of logical loopholes.

TThe film’s music tries to evoke emotions but falls flat. Before each murder, a growl indicates what’s coming, and before the killer strikes, the music warns you. This removes the element of surprise, which is crucial to a good thriller.

Sarath Kumar is the only actor who gives his all in an attempt to salvage this poorly executed story. The rest of the performances, except for those by George Maryan and Kalaiyarasan, make little impact.

The Smile Man is a lost opportunity considering the potential it showed. If only the screenplay had been handled better, the film could have had a much stronger impact.

2 out of 5 stars for The Smile Man.

With two much anticipated NFL games and a big assist from Beyoncé, Netflix created a major cultural moment for the streaming industry, marking a significant milestone as the service pushes further into live sports. But the events couldn’t top the ratings for last year’s games on broadcast television.

Netflix on Thursday said its two Christmas Day NFL games — Kansas City Chiefs vs. Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens vs. Houston Texans — each brought tens of millions of viewers to the Los Gatos, Calif.-based streaming service.

The Ravens-Texans game drew an average of 24.3 million U.S. viewers Wednesday, while the earlier Chiefs-Steelers matchup brought in 24.1 million, according to Nielsen data released by Netflix. Viewership peaked with 27 million viewers during the Ravens-Texans game with Beyoncé’s halftime performance, the company said. Worldwide streaming numbers will be released in the coming days.

The strong numbers come after Netflix’s boxing match between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson attracted huge viewership to the platform, despite being plagued by buffering and other technical issues for many users. That bout, Netflix’s first professional live sports event, drew 65 million households streaming concurrently and 108 million global viewers, the company said.

Netflix’s numbers are a sign of the potential for streaming as a vehicle for sports broadcasting. But the ratings didn’t top those for traditional TV. Last year’s most-watched Christmas Day game averaged 29.2 million viewers for CBS, according to Nielsen data.

The data for Wednesday’s games included CBS local market viewing and mobile viewing on NFL+, in addition to traffic to Netflix, the company said.

NFL fans are used to turning on the the old-school broadcasters for their football showdowns, despite the growing popularity of streaming for on-demand and live programming.

Netflix’s NFL games were widely seen as a key moment for the streaming industry, pairing the most popular sport in America with the biggest global subscription streaming platform. Streaming services have been swallowing up the rights to sports leagues, with Amazon securing Thursday Night Football and upcoming NBA games, while Apple has Major League Baseball on Friday nights as well as Major League Soccer games.

“Amazon and YouTube and Apple and now Netflix, they’re all totally in the mix,” said Paul Verna, vice president of content at market research firm Emarketer. Netflix’s NFL Christmas Day broadcast is “them throwing their hat into the ring for live sports in a big way.”

The entry of the tech titans has also raised the price of sports rights. Traditional TV networks often are willing to pay big bucks to keep live games, one of the few things that can still get a huge number of people to tune in at a specific time.

Netflix reportedly paid $150 million for its first two NFL games. The service will also carry at least one NFL Christmas game in 2025 and 2026 as part of a three-year agreement with the league.

CBS Sports produced the games, with NFL Media producing the pre-, post-, and studio halftime programming.

“Bringing our members this record-breaking day of two NFL games was the best Christmas gift we could have delivered,” Bela Bajaria, Netflix’s chief content officer, said in a statement.

Compared with some of its prominent streaming rivals, Netflix had been slower to dive into sports.

Prior to the Paul vs. Tyson fight, Netflix’s efforts in live sports included events such as exhibition golf and tennis tournaments, as well as sports documentaries. Last week, Netflix signaled further ambitions by signing a deal to stream the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031. The company has been gradually upping its game in the space because of the appeal for viewers and, crucially, advertisers, which Netflix is attempting to court.

“The other companies have started small and built up from there, and I see Netflix going in exactly the same direction,” Verna said.

Neither of the Christmas games were very close. In the first game of the day, Kansas City defeated Pittsburgh 29-10. Baltimore routed Houston 31-2.

From a technical perspective, the NFL games on Netflix were a far smoother viewing experience for those tuning in, compared with the Paul vs. Tyson match, during which the company’s service was overwhelmed by demand. Those problems rose the stakes for Netflix, which worked to prepare for another big influx of viewers.

The streaming giant has about 283 million subscribers worldwide, with nearly 85 million in the U.S. and Canada.

It did its best to Netflix-ify the telecasts, peppering commercial breaks with promos for its upcoming shows and movies (including “Squid Game” Season 2, which debuted Thursday, the second season of “The Night Agent” and “Back in Action,” starring Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz).

The telecast also featured appearances from comedians Bert Kreischer and Nate Bargatze, who have appeared on Netflix. Bargatze’s latest standup special just debuted on the service.

But by far, the biggest nonathletic draw to the event was Beyoncé’s halftime performance during the Ravens-Texans contest in Houston, the singer’s hometown. The artist showcased her latest album, the countrified “Cowboy Carter” celebrating her Southern roots, ahead of February’s Grammy Awards, at which she’s competing for album of the year.

Times music critic Mikael Wood called the performance “a thrill from top to bottom.” “For all its cross-promotional synergy,” her “halftime show was a reminder that whatever lures Beyoncé from her superstar cocoon is worth celebrating,” Wood wrote.

Regular season NFL games typically don’t have a halftime show — a spectacle reserved for big games such as the Super Bowl. But the decision to add Beyoncé into the mix was a savvy move, Verna said.

“It definitely had much more media interest and attention because everybody knew Beyoncé was going to perform,” he said. “Netflix was smart to latch onto these Christmas games and having the halftime show certainly couldn’t have hurt.”

The CGI animated savannahs, rivers and rock formations of Africa are photo-real, and the animals populating it have never been more realistically rendered than they are in “Mufasa: The Lion King.”

Disney felt the need to have the lions, warthog and meercat’s lips move when they sing, which is saying something.

But let’s keep this review short and not-exactly-sweet, unlike this boardroom-ordered prequel to one of Disney’s most popular intellectual properties. “Mufasa: The Lion King” never makes the case that it’s a story that needed to be told or a movie that needed to be made.

It’s about how Mufasa got separated from his birth-parents’ pride of lions, and joined another, becoming “brothers” with the lion cub who “saved” him, but who will come to be called “Scar.”

So the object of this prequel is to show how Mufasa became Lion King and how Scar got his scar and became the bitter rival in their pride.

The “story” is framed as a “story” Rafiki the ape (John Sani) tells Simba’s cub, and that cub’s protectors/babysitters, Timon (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa (Seth Rogen).

The tale is of another coming-of-age quest, with two young-lions on their own this time, paired-up, depending on each other, on the run from a pride of albino lions led by the killer Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen).

There are new songs of a far more forgettable nature than those from the animated classic “The Lion King.”

“The circle is broken,” he growls, and we believe him.

There are harrowing moments of drama in their quest, but there’s precious little humor to the movie, all of it provided by the same duo who have always been the comic relief, Timon and Pumbaa.

“We’ve been singing ‘Hakuna Matata’ since forever!”

“Who hasn’t?“

The messaging, about taking in “strays,” and that “To be lost is to learn the way,” is weak tea.

Story failings aside, it’s not a bad movie. But “Mufasa” never lets us forget the limited-entertainment-value of the entire undertaking. Oscar winner Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”) was hired to direct, but aside from a few voice casting decisions (Keith David, Anika Noni Rose, with Aaron Pierre and Kelvin Harrison, Jr. as Mufasa and Taka/Scar), he brings nothing to this that makes a difference.

Disney’s tech/animators telling their bosses that “Yes, we can make it look like a movie with real singing lions and bathing hippos on the veldt without using real animals or shooting on location” is no justification for showcasing that technology.

Story matters, and this one didn’t need to be told.

Rating: PG, some violence

Cast: The voices of Aaron Pierre, Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Tiffany Boone, John Kani, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton, Keith David, Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen.

Credits: Directed by Barry Jenkins, scripted by Jeff Nathanson, based on characters from Disney’s “The Lion King.” A Walt Disney release.

Running time: 1:58