Titus Welliver’s Top 7 Movie Roles, Ranked From Worst To Best

Titus Welliver will all the time be greatest remembered for his flip as Harry Bosch on the small display, however he has additionally appeared in a formidable array of films too. Placing in years of labor earlier than he lastly hit it massive, Welliver’s profession began within the early Nineties when he made sporadic appearances in bit elements in motion pictures and TV exhibits.

His arduous work paid off, and Welliver started touchdown bigger elements and making a splash in multi-episode arcs on exhibits like NYPD Blue. Typically taking part in gruff characters like cops and criminals, Welliver’s skill to fall into a task effortlessly made him a chief candidate for a show-stealing supporting position.

Although Welliver’s best TV roles are quite a few, his work in movie has been considerably extra sporadic. Whereas he has but to land a film that has outlined his profession, Welliver is not any stranger to nice elements. At any time when he does seem in a movie, Titus Welliver brings the identical vitality and naturalistic ability that he places into his TV roles.

Poker Evening (2014)

The straight-to-VOD flick Poker Evening isn’t going to prime any biggest horror movies rankings, however it’s a serviceable thriller with a stellar forged of character actor legends. The movie considerations a younger cop who’s kidnapped by a serial killer, who should use all the teachings he realized from his older cop buddies to flee.

Director Greg Francis’ script is lackluster, however his casting saves the movie. Titus Welliver performs Maxwell, one of many seasoned cops, and he is proper at house within the position. Working alongside the likes of Giancarlo Esposito and Ron Perlman, Welliver does the very best with what he’s given, respiration life into Maxwell, who is not a well-defined character to start with.

The film has a jumbled storyline that may typically be complicated, and it would not have sufficient thrills to be terrifying. Usually, Poker Evening would not be on anybody’s greatest motion pictures listing, however Titus Welliver’s filmography is considerably scant in comparison with his work on TV. A number of extra robust movies for Welliver, and Poker Evening will doubtless fade into obscurity.

Promised Land (2012)

Complicated characters are Titus Welliver’s specialty, and he acquired to play one within the oft-forgotten Promised Land. The John Krasinski and Matt Damon-penned film stars Damon as an oil firm consultant who is distributed to a small city to safe drilling rights. The movie examines the controversial technique of “fracking”, which is understood to have hostile environmental results.

Welliver performs store proprietor Rob, who befriends the film’s different oil govt, Sue (Frances McDormand). As an alternative of taking part in a troublesome cop or a hardened unhealthy man, Welliver excels as a easy small enterprise proprietor, and he completely represents the sophisticated relationship between cash and the setting. It isn’t a task Welliver often performs, however his vary is on full show.

Nonetheless, Promised Land ranks so low as a result of it’s an in the end imperfect movie. It has a number of nice concepts, and a robust forged, but it surely by no means will get out of first gear. It tries to be gentle and character-driven whereas additionally inspecting such a heady subject, so it feels as if it is not taking the topic severely sufficient.

Good-looking Harry (2010)

Fashionable streaming and digital platforms permit many movies to slide by with out discover, however 2010’s Good-looking Harry is a compelling drama price discovering. It considerations a Navy vet who relives a traumatic second from his previous as he visits a comrade on his deathbed. The indie manufacturing put its cash in the proper locations, specifically with a robust forged.

Titus Welliver is barely within the film for lower than 10 minutes, however he steals the present as born-again Christian, Gebhardt. Not like his extra overt villainous roles, Gebhardt is not any caricature, and requires each ounce of his deft ability taking part in heels. Whereas the opposite characters endure from their guilt, Gebhardt is enraged by it, and causes a scene.

Good-looking Harry presents Titus Welliver considered one of his best-ever roles, but it surely is not his greatest movie by a protracted shot. It is nonetheless a terrific impartial manufacturing, and is terrifically written, but it surely strikes too slowly for its personal good and wishes one or two extra scenes to raise the ultimate product.

Shaft (2019)

Making a legacy sequel to considered one of the best Blaxploitation movies ever was a raffle in 2000, and making a sequel to that sequel was even riskier in 2019. Nonetheless, Samuel L. Jackson’s return in Shaft was a welcome sight. The motion comedy picked up a long time after its predecessor, with Jackson persevering with to play the son of the title hero.

As soon as once more tapped to play a hard-nosed authority determine, Welliver seems as FBI Agent Vietti, who’s the boss of JJ (Jessie T. Usher). The half is not significantly difficult, and Welliver is not given quite a bit to do, however he’s nonetheless completely forged. With out tipping his hand, Welliver understood the slight fringe of humor in the latest Shaft film.

Shaft acquired fairly poor evaluations, and solely scored a measly 38% on Rotten Tomatoes, but it surely discovered its viewers anyway. Incomes a formidable 98% viewers rating on the exact same web site, Shaft had one thing that critics could not see, that resonated with viewers particularly. Its enjoyable and upbeat motion comedy was one thing that is sorely lacking in trendy cinemas.

Gone Child Gone (2007)

Gone Child Gone was Ben Affleck’s first film as a director, however he acquired off to a scorching begin and delivered a chilling thriller that is typically missed. Set round Boston, the movie follows a personal investigator who’s tasked with discovering a lacking lady who has deep connections to his personal neighborhood.

The emotionally-charged thriller tapped Titus Welliver to play the lacking lady’s uncle, Lionel, and he is not precisely what he appears on the floor. All of the characters in Gone Child Gone are wealthy and multi-faceted, and Welliver’s efficiency really sells the duality of Lionel in his private struggles and need to do what he believes to be the proper factor.

Gone Child Gone is such a terrific movie as a result of it subverts expectations, and since it makes use of the detective story framework to dig into the idea of proper and unsuitable. Welliver is not just a few small half within the story, he is one of many emotional cores, and that offers him a stage to steal the present.

The City (2010)

A number of years after Gone Child Gone, Titus Welliver and Ben Affleck reunited for The City. The crime movie stars Affleck as a financial institution robber who desires to get out of the life when he falls for a lady that he met whereas committing a heist. Mixing varied genres, The City is a thriller wrapped in a personality portrait.

Director and star Ben Affleck clearly noticed one thing in Welliver, and he tasked him to play a uniquely difficult half in The City. Welliver performs a minor supporting position as Detective Ciampa, a laid-back investigator who’s a foil to Jon Hamm’s hot-tempered FBI agent.

The half is especially difficult as a result of it asks him to tone it down, and he is some of the real looking characters within the movie. He is not bombastic or over-the-top, however there may be clearly one thing occurring in his thoughts always. Welliver works effectively with Hamm, who’s ostensibly the precise reverse.

The City is an iconic thriller from the 2010s, and is definitely considered one of Affleck’s strongest motion pictures. Welliver is just one small half, however he helps elevate what’s already a superb movie. Even when he had greater roles in different movies, The City is so good that it deserves a better spot in Welliver’s filmography.

Argo (2012)

Marking their third collaboration in a row, Argo is by far Titus Welliver’s greatest movie with Ben Affleck, and his greatest movie normally. Adapting the real-life story of the so-called “Canadian Caper”, Argo follows Canadian and CIA operatives as they rescue American diplomats from Iran in the course of the notorious 1979-1980 hostage disaster.

Welliver seems as Jon Bates, an American operative who helps a few of the plan’s extra outlandish concepts. For the reason that film is generally reality, Bates is not an exaggerated character, and Welliver does quite a bit with a little bit. He isn’t within the movie very a lot, however he matches properly with an ensemble of recognizable stars who pop out and in of the movie somewhat rapidly.

Argo gained a slew of awards, and was a field workplace smash. That kind of twin success is sort of uncommon, and it speaks to Ben Affleck’s skills as a filmmaker. Since his whole movie profession has largely been in smaller roles, it is becoming that Titus Welliver‘s greatest film solely makes use of him selectively.