Fool up here talking crazy.

It’s been a couple of months since I watched Trust Nobody and while I was really excited to see the sequel I had to let it simmer for a bit. There was a few years between Trust Nobody and Trust Nobody 2, and another year before Trust Nobody 3. Sometimes you gotta let the flavors simmer before you dig into the pot of soup, if you know what I mean. I hope you do, because I don’t.

Trust Nobody 2 sees the return of director Brandon Cornett and writers Violetta Joseph and Steven Love. The first film ended with Bricks (Jamal Woolard) getting shot and presumed dead, which of course we know wasn’t the case because he’s in the sequels. Bricks is out of the movie for a good half of it and doesn’t really have much of an active role in the scenes he is in. His job is to be uncharacteristically naive and not know his brother is trying to kill him.

The fact that Tyriq Thomas Kimbrough is so far low on the cast as Fool is an insult, because Fool is undoubtedly the main character of this movie and this man needs more parts in more films. I’m convinced Kimbrough is an acting genius after watching Trust Nobody 2. Since trying to have his brother killed in the first movie, Fool has gone completely out of control. He devolves into a psychotic, emotional serial killer…sorry, spree killer, and seems to be enjoying every moment of his sadistic death streak. I’m not exaggerating when I say that Kimbrough carries this movie on his back almost single-handedly through his performance.

Fool’s job here is to rob shit, shoot people, and have fun doing it. There’s a massive list of great characters in this movie with names like Fatazz, Cheese, Swiss, Insane Lane. Everyone thinks Bricks is dead and that means all the gangsters are running around trying to prove themselves in the power vacuum. There’s people double crossing, triple crossing, quadruple crossing. Factions joining forces, betraying each other, it’s kinda hard to keep up with who is working with who and who is about to shoot who in the back of the face. I guess that’s the point though, the series is called Trust Nobody.

Trust Nobody had some great lines, but the sequel? Absolute genius. There’s a Highlander reference, a Pinky and the Brain joke. Pimp returns from the first movie and I couldn’t help but feel bad for the guy as he deals with his life unraveling out of control right in front of him. On the other hand his character is dating Shelby Leigh who is absolutely drop dead gorgeous, so life can’t be all that bad. And Trust Nobody 2 has some beautiful women including the return of Bianca Spear as Shell.

The sequel is all character-focused, as the competing groups try to figure out who is robbing them and killing their dudes as Fool goes on his killing/robbing spree. There is a single very brief stripper scene early on in the film, but there’s nowhere near the amount of ho activity in this film as the last one. There’s more important things to worry about than bitches right now I guess. There’s always room in the third for big asses being shaken for money.

Oh and Violetta Joseph returns to play Bricks’ mom. Love her.

Trust Nobody 2 might be a bit of a letdown for fans of the original. Part of it might be that Kimbrough’s acting is so over the top (including many times where he peaks out the microphone) that it makes the other actors look like they’re sleeping by comparison. I still think it’s worth seeing if you enjoyed the first film and want to see where the characters twist and turn. It also lets you know who you can trust, and spoiler alert; you can trust nobody. Two.

Rating: B-