The movie begins with two separate stories. First we have the shaky relationship between Chato and Noza. Chato treats Noza like s**t, even going as far as having sex with her best friend. Actually, this is the scene that opens the film; Chato is getting a Lewinski from Noza’s friend and when he gets some nut on his pants, he makes the girl take off her sock so she can clean him up. Not a nice guy at all.
Second we have Derrick, an illegal street car racer who engages in high speed races with multiple cars on the freeway. Derrick’s kind of an intense dude – street racing is his life and he’s always getting into pissing contests with his old man. Derrick is a dude’s dude.
And for nearly the entire first hour, the movie flip-flops back and forth between these two stories. The story of Chato and Noza remains fairly dull; there’s even a long, drawn-out scene where the two “sweethearts” are each at their own houses, getting dressed and preparing to see one another. Snore.
Meanwhile, Derrick is tearing up the road in race after race…after race…after race…This was cool with me for a little bit as the racing scenes are masterfully shot. I can’t believe some of the stuff they pulled off in this film. Amazing! But then the races start running into one another and my interest bottomed out. I began wishing that I was at an actual street race, drinking beers with all the gearheads.
Finally, something interesting happens in the story of Chato and Noza. Chato is busted at the parole office for trying to pass off his little brother’s piss as his own and he is incarcerated. Shortly after this goes down, Noza goes out with her girlfriends…to the street races. A-ha! At last a connection between these two stories. And yes, this is where Noza meets Derrick and they hook it up. Noza nicknames Derrick “Quattro” because of a number 4 symbol inside his car. There you go – the title of the movie.
Bummed that he’s being ignored, no calls and no visitations from Noza, Chato escapes from the pokey and discovers that Noza is hugged up with Quattro. Boy oh boy does hell ever break loose.
But despite whatever kind of hell breaks loose or how much s**t hits the fan, what we basically have here is a pretty dopey love story that often looks like a perfume/cologne commercial for homies and hoodrats. For those of you hoping that this is the indie “Fast and the Furious,” forget about it.
It all wouldn’t be so bad, however, if the film wasn’t so goddamned long. And another thing, I think I could’ve gotten into this film more if I felt that the events in the first half seemed like they had anything to do with each other. Something…anything…make me feel good!
