A police horse that was startled at the State Fair of Texas injured a fairgoer on October 8.
According to the Dallas Police Department, a mounted police officer was "patrolling Big Tex Circle" around 3 pm when the horse got spooked. The officer attempted to regain control of the animal, but ran through a group of people. a teen male ended up getting trampled and was taken to the hospital.
One witness said that the officer was getting a drink at one of the stands while still mounted. Once he got the drink, the horse sped off and patrol officer was thrown from the horse.
"The cop was getting a drink with the horse and then when he left with the drink in his hand the horse started going crazy and going full speed to a crowd of people," the witness said. "The cop fucked up by getting a drink while on a horse and not having full control. [It] was weird he was not dropping the drink when the horse started going crazy. The cop ended up getting stuck on the saddle and fell off. Then the cop came to the scene and I asked him what happened and he said, I don’t know. I’m trying to figure it out.'"
The Dallas Police Department uses draft horses, a larger breed "developed as working horses," but the bigger question is, why does the Dallas Police Department need to use horses at all, when other tools like Segways exist?
"Stop using animals for intimidation factors and this won’t happen," suggested one commenter. "Isn’t your AR-15, taser, sidearm, pepper spray, and club enough to enforce whatever you think you need to at The Fair? Let the animals be animals."
The history of DC Comics in movies has been hit-and-miss, especially when it comes to anything not directly involving Batman or Superman. Over the years, films have been headlined by heroes like Catwoman, Green Lantern, Aquaman, Shazam, the Flash, and more, and while some succeeded, none left a lasting mark on moviegoers’ imaginations.
Much like they did with Joker, the powers-that-be behind DC Studios productions are trying to entice viewers with a no-holds-barred story in Clayface. Matt Hagen (Tom Rhys Harries) is an A-list movie actor with both critical and commercial appeal. Unfortunately, a night of celebration for his recent Oscar nomination leads to him sleeping with Theresa (Ruby Sear), the girlfriend of Markos Szabo (David Dencik), a prominent mobster in Gotham City. Markos then enacts revenge by taking a razor to Matt’s face.
Desperate to find a way to look like his old self again, Matt seeks out Dr. Caitlyn Corr (Naomi Ackie), who’s conducting cutting-edge nanotechnology research that can heal any kind of damage. While the solution works on Matt, it also has the side effect of his body doing unintended things, even morphing into those with whom he comes into contact. After initially struggling with his new body, Matt decides to use his powers to enact revenge on those who’ve done him wrong.
Directed by James Watkins (Speak No Evil) and written by Mike Flanagan (The Life of Chuck) and Hossein Amini, the film is only intermittently entertaining as it tries to sell its ridiculous premise. Right from the start, it seems like the filmmakers have been given a limited budget, as everything from the sets to the CGI to the stilted dialogue feels cheap. For a film coming from a major studio, the whole thing comes off as schlocky and undercooked.
Watkins and his team try to make up for that shoddiness by delivering R-rated thrills like nudity and body horror, but those elements can only distract for so long. Much of the film is spent dealing with Matt’s trauma, and the downbeat nature of his body issues combined with very little action makes the movie not very fun to watch. The film also tries to make hay with more than a doctor-patient bond between Caitlyn — who has a boyfriend on the police force — and Matt, but like the most of the film, it never connects.
It’s not until the final third of the movie that the filmmakers land on the tone they should have been using the whole time. Matt’s ability to transform himself, while illogical and confounding, provides multiple over-the-top, funny moments and some legitimately creative kills. Instead of taking forever to set up Matt/Clayface’s origin story, Watkins and his team should have just cut to the chase and let him loose to see what the character could truly do.
This is the first big role for Welsh actor Harries, and while he’s not exactly magnetic, he proves himself worthy of the lead role. Ackie is also fine, but after several years of trying to advance up the Hollywood ladder, she may be running out of time to show she’s a star. The supporting cast has a couple of familiar faces, but it’s mostly lesser-known actors who do nothing to indicate they deserve bigger showcases.
It’s difficult to imagine any non-DC Comics fans having a strong attachment to the character of Clayface, and the film fails to make the case that he should be a continuing character. The poor quality of almost everything that appears on screen is indicative of the kind of effort and money that was put into the film, and sometimes you really do get what you pay for.
