Food truck festival brings catering trend to VCU

GEORGIA GEEN Spectrum Editor

Food trucks are filling a geographical gap where brick-andmortar restaurants can’t meet demand, changing the way catering is done and serving food at events like the VCU Dining Services Food Truck Festival on April 10.

“In general, I think food trucks are a complement,” said manager of The Dog Wagon food truck, Roger Stout. “You always hear rumors about food trucks not being near restaurants, that they’ll take away business but I disagree because when we as food trucks go to an event, it would be the same as someone catering the event.”

Stout, whose food truck was one of six in attendance at the festival, said traditional catering is “more of a process,” requiring extensive setup. Food trucks on the other hand only have to drive to the location.

Richmond’s food trucks also serve what Stout describes as a “niche” population of brewery-goers via invitation from the business. This is what makes food trucks like The Dog Wagon different from food carts stationed around the city, Stout said.

“We don’t just go set up and hope that somebody will walk up to the truck,” Stout said. “We go to places where the restaurants aren’t. If you go to an industrial park or an office park, there are no restaurants.”

Parking restrictions faced by food trucks have forced the growing industry to be more creative and seek out private lots to sell their products, Stout said.

“What we pride ourselves in is trying to interact with the customers and get them involved,” Stout said. “It creates a more friendly atmosphere. You’re having fun, they’re having fun, the food’s good. It’s a win-win.”

Dining Services Business Man- ager Lauren Hay said the festival was a way to bring students and community members together, being that food trucks are an important part of a city environment.

“For us, we think of those first year students who come in and aren’t aware of things in an urban setting,” Hay said.

Sophomore kinetic imaging student Alexis Hilliard-Worth was exposed to food trucks for the first time at the festival. She and other students with dining plans obtained two free tickets to exchange for food from the vendors.

“I wasn’t aware that they’re a big thing around here, so I definitely want to go out and look for them now,” Hilliard-Worth said. She said she enjoyed being able to get a quick and “wholesome” meal from The Dog Wagon.

“I think it’s cool to bring everyone together because it’s such a nice day,” Hilliard-Worth said. “Finally, spring is here, winter is thawed and we’re just all coming together having a good time.”

Stout said when he started The Dog Wagon in 2012 there were fewer food trucks in the Richmond area. As a result, there were less trucks to meet a high demand.

“All of us were quite busy at that time. I had never done anything like this, I’m a white-collar worker so to do this was something completely out of my realm,” Stout said. “I think it’s going to be around for a while.”

SAMUEL GOODRICH

Staff Writer

Hollywood has recently revitalized the monster movie genre. While these films gained some prominence in the ‘90s by mixing giant creatures with disaster films, the past few years have seen these blockbusters return to the big screen.

With the likes of 2014’s “Godzilla,” “Pacific Rim” and “Kong: Skull Island” dominating the box office, there was bound to be an adaptation of the 1986 arcade game “Rampage,” in which players destroyed buildings and ward off the military as mutated monsters. That day has arrived, and while director Brad Peyton tries to bring some emotion and depth to the simplistic plot, it’s too inconsistent to make a worthwhile product.

“Rampage” starts strong by focusing on the friendship between Dwayne Johnson’s Davis Okoye and motion-captured albino gorilla George. Johnson sells the pair’s bond and camaraderie with his charisma alone. The film even does a good job at making George sympathetic, having him clearly express his fear and doubt after being infected by a pathogen.

Yet, once the larger plot is revealed and Davis and George are seperated, the film begins to suffer.

The main villains are the heads of a genetics company who performed DNA editing experiments secretly in space. The fruits of their labor crash-land on Earth, changing George, a wolf and a crocodile into gigantic, rage-fueled monsters.

The heads of the genetics company are insufferable, played so cartoonishly they seem to be part of a different film altogether. Malin Akerman is cold, callous and dull, while Jake Lacy is a bumbling idiot seemingly transplanted from an Adam Sandler comedy.

The humor in general is equally annoying, switching between one-liners and self-aware jabs. At other times, “Rampage” tries too hard to be serious, giving Dwayne Johnson’s sidekick, a geneticist, an overly tragic backstory that clashes with the b-movie tone the film inhabits the majority of the time.

The only character who brings any energy to the dull middle portion is Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Harvey Russell, whose southern drawl and comedic sayings prove to be a highlight. Yet, he also feels out of place, coming in during seemingly intense moments and breaking the drama with his caricaturish performance.

By the time “Rampage” reaches its finale, when the mutated creatures begin to destroy a city, the film finally rediscovers its footing and becomes a fun blockbuster. The action is put on a massive scale, with entire buildings crumpling and George eventually teaming up with Johnson to stop the other monsters from causing anymore damage.

While this may sound fun on paper, the result is oddly boring and predictable. The finale could have been elevated if the film had spent more time with its strongest aspect: Davis’ and George’s friendship. There could have been some real stakes and intense moments, but we are instead left with another disaster movie full of implausible setpieces and cookie-cutter plots and characters.

“Rampage” feels like a lazy effort from Hollywood to cash in on video game adaptations and the recent surge in monster movies. What it misses is the opportunity to make the film more than its source material, leading to a film that has its moments of fun, but as a disjointed whole isn’t worth anyone’s time.