Val Avery Movies List

Tommy Gibbs is a tough kid, raised in the ghetto, who aspires to be a kingpin criminal. As a young boy, his leg is broken by a bad cop on the take, during a payoff gone bad. Nursing his vengeance, he rises to power in Harlem, New York. Angry at the racist society around him, both criminal and straight, he sees the acquisition of power as the solution to his rage.

One of the great mavericks of cinema, John Cassavetes has earned a reputation as the godfather of American independent movies. The actor-turned-filmmaker invented a realist style of unadorned narrative films heavily influenced by documentaries. This in-depth analysis of Cassavetes' life and work features interviews with key collaborators and ensemble regulars, and explores the making of classics like "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie," "Opening Night" and "A Woman Under the Influence."

A hard-nosed Chicago journalist has an unlikely love affair with an eagle researcher.

An FBI undercover agent infiltrates the mob and identifies more with the mafia life at the expense of his regular one.

A gripping thriller telling the true story of the hunt and capture of David Berkowitz, a.k.a. "Son of Sam" — the infamous serial killer who stalked New York in the 70s.

Middle-aged suburban husband Richard abruptly tells his wife, Maria, that he wants a divorce. As Richard takes up with a younger woman, Maria enjoys a night on the town with her friends and meets a younger man. As the couple and those around them confront a seemingly futile search for what they've lost -- love, excitement, passion -- this classic American independent film explores themes of aging and alienation.

The new warden of a small prison farm in Arkansas tries to clean it up of corruption after initially posing as an inmate.

Hud Bannon is a ruthless young man who tarnishes everything and everyone he touches. Hud represents the perfect embodiment of alienated youth, out for kicks with no regard for the consequences. There is bitter conflict between the callous Hud and his stern and highly principled father, Homer. Hud's nephew Lon admires Hud's cheating ways, though he soon becomes too aware of Hud's reckless amorality to bear him anymore. In the world of the takers and the taken, Hud is a winner. He's a cheat, but, he explains, "I always say the law was meant to be interpreted in a lenient manner."

The streets of the Bronx are owned by '60s youth gangs where the joy and pain of adolescence is lived. Philip Kaufman tells his take on the novel by Richard Price about the history of the Italian-American gang ‘The Wanderers.’

To inherit his mother-in-law's colossal fortune, a hard living gambling addict must change his unhealthy ways before it gets the best of him.

A marshal tries to bring the son of an old friend, an autocratic cattle baron, to justice for the rape and murder of his wife.

George Lutz and his wife Kathleen move into their Long Island dream house with their children only for their lives to be turned into a hellish nightmare. The legacy of a murder committed in the house gradually affects the family and a priest is brought in to try and exorcise the demonic presence from their home.

Jobless sportswriter Eddie Willis is hired by corrupt fight promoter Nick Benko to promote his current protégé, an unknown Argentinian boxer named Toro Moreno. Although Moreno is a hulking giant, his chances for success are hampered by a powder-puff punch and a glass jaw. Exploiting Willis' reputation for integrity and standing in the boxing community, Benko arranges a series of fixed fights that propel the unsophisticated Moreno to #1 contender for the championship. The reigning champ, the sadistic Buddy Brannen, harbors resentment at the publicity Toro has been receiving and vows to viciously punish him in the ring. Eddie must now decide whether or not to tell the naive Toro the truth.

An unemployed pot-smoking slacker and amateur drummer, Anthony Stoner ditches his strict parents and hits the road, eventually meeting kindred spirit Pedro de Pacas. While the drug-ingesting duo is soon arrested for possession of marijuana, Anthony and Pedro get released on a technicality, allowing them to continue their many misadventures and ultimately compete in a rock band contest, where they perform the raucous tune "Earache My Eye."

A man befriends a fellow criminal as the two of them begin serving their sentence on a dreadful prison island, which inspires the man to plot his escape.

When a gunman opens fire on a crowded city bus in San Francisco, Detective Dave Evans is killed, along with the man he'd been following in relation to a murder. Evans' partner, Sgt. Jake Martin, becomes obsessed with solving the case.

Jackie Pruit is the girlfriend of notorious gangster Joe Bomposa. When it looks as if Bomposa's goons are threatening Jackie's life, the FBI moves in to protect her, hoping that she'll have incriminating evidence. Veteran agent Charlie Congers is assigned to watch over Jackie, and while it soon becomes apparent that she knows almost nothing about Bomposa that would be of any use to the FBI, he falls in love with her. Bomposa decides it would be more convenient to have Jackie out of the way, ordering her to be executed. Bomposa's henchmen slip through FBI security and murder her, but now they have to answer the angry and vengeful Congers.

A killer is brutally attacking several tenants that live in a high rise apartment building in New York City.

An army deserter and a black dock worker join forces against a corrupt manager.

When a young boy's family is killed by the mob, their tough neighbor Gloria becomes his reluctant guardian. In possession of a book that the gangsters want, the pair go on the run in New York.

Nevada Smith is the young son of an Indian mother and white father. When his father is killed by three men over gold, Nevada sets out to find them and kill them. The boy is taken in by a gun merchant. The gun merchant shows him how to shoot and to shoot on time and correct.

A wagon train heads for Denver with a cargo of whisky for the miners. Chaos ensues as the Temperance League, the US cavalry, the miners and the local Indians all try to take control of the valuable cargo.

A forty-year marriage begins to unravel when the husband brings home a pet fish that he wants to keep in the bathtub.

When an American booze smuggler gets murdered in Prohibition-era Mexico, his widow, a nightclub singer, joins forces with her lover and a desperate loner to become rum-runners to the U.S.

Police officer Tom Sharky gets busted back to working vice, where he happens upon a scandalous conspiracy involving a local politician. Sharky's new 'machine' gathers evidence while Sharky falls in love with a woman he has never met.

The story of Johnson Whittaker, one of the first African-American cadets admitted to West Point. Tied down and beaten by his fellow cadets

In a 1940s New York, two Jewish teenage boys are determined to remain friends despite the deep differences between their two families.

Accused barn burner and conman Ben Quick arrives in a small Mississippi town and quickly ingratiates himself with its richest family, the Varners.

A Greek American father of a dying boy decides to take his son to Greece to breathe the clean air of his ancestors, in an attempt to save the boy's life. However, money is a problem.

After serving 12 years behind bars for armed robbery, tough guy Hank McCain finds himself the pawn of a ruthless mob runt's rebellion against a high level don. When McCain discovers that he's been betrayed and abandoned by his new employer, he retaliates with a high stakes Las Vegas casino heist that erupts into all-out war on the streets of Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Not blood, nor lust, nor wedding vows can come between McCain and his money...or his machine gun.

Based on Graham Greene's novel about a flawed but devoted priest in 1930s Mexico who attempts to perform his duties while eluding a police lieutenant determined to capture him.

Two hoplessly out of their class con-men attempt to pull off the largest bank heist of the l9th century—by gaining the enmity of the most famous bank robber in the world and the affection of a crusading newspaperwoman.

A Vietnam veteran suffering from post traumatic stress disorder breaks out of a VA hospital and goes on a road trip with a sympathetic traveler to find out what became of the other men in his unit.

A mother in Queens, New York, outraged when she discovers that her son is a drug addict, becomes an undercover agent for the DEA to clean up the drug trade in her neighborhood. Based on a true story.

Ghost is an ideological musician and leader of a jazz band who would rather play his blues in the park to the birds than compromise himself. His peripatetic performances lead him to cross paths with a singer, while his masculinity is thrown into question following a violent brawl.

Harold, a professional gambler, and his girlfriend Bonita, a lounge singer, follow Willie, a young blackjack dealer, around the western U.S. Harold has a jinx on Willie and can't lose with him. Bonita and Willie meet and fall for each other and plot to do away with Harold and collect on his life insurance.

Clyde Williams and Billy Foster are a couple of blue-collar workers in Atlanta who have promised to raise funds for their fraternal order, the Brothers and Sisters of Shaka. However, their method for raising the money involves travelling to New Orleans and rigging a boxing match.

The son of a powerful Mafia don comes home from his army service in Vietnam and wants to lead his own life, but family tradition, intrigues and powerplays involving his older brother dictate otherwise, and he finds himself being slowly drawn back into that world.

When a stunt man dies in Miami, his uncle, a New York mob boss, sends a hit man to tail the stunt coordinator, whom the boss wants dead. The hit man, Eric O'Bryne, gets close to his mark's daughter, and through her he asks her dad to teach him to do stunts. While waiting for the word to kill this mentor, Eric discovers the joy of stunt work and of being part of a family. Meanwhile, several people are looking for the dead man's briefcase of money and a cloth bag of illegal drugs that he stole from an undercover FBI agent now desperate to get the borrowed drugs back to the bureau. The stunt coordinator says that 'we dance in the shadows of death.' Can Eric step out into the sun?

A tough-on-crime street cop must protect the only surviving witness to a strange murderous cult with far reaching plans.

An oppressed Mexican peasant village hires seven gunfighters to help defend their homes.

Mountain Rivera is a veteran heavyweight and near-champion who suddenly finds himself washed up in the only trade he knows—prizefighting. Yet, threatened by gangsters for welshing on a gambling debt, Mountain’s opportunistic manager, Maish Rennick, schemes to get the ex-boxer into a phony wrestling match to make some quick money. Although he and his loyal trainer, Army, oppose the degrading proposition, the disillusioned Mountain begins to wonder if he has any options left.

Barney owns the last working farm in Manhattan. For various reasons, city officials have decided to close it down. A special event is planned to raise awareness and money to keep it running.

A dying marshal deputizes a drifter to deliver the two killers in his custody to prison. However, the new deputy must elude a pair of bounty hunters who want to deliver the prisoners themselves to collect the reward and would think nothing of killing the deputy to get them.

A famous fashion photographer is trapped in a remote South American country with a beautiful model and together with some unscrupulous characters, become involved in the search for a lost diamond mine.

Low-budget beach party rip-off relocated to the slopes, with the plot of Taming of the Shrew loosely pasted on and with beats by the Beau Brummels.

Karen stands to inherit millions from her dead husband on one condition: she must stay away from other men. Two of the deceased's former associates seek his money by getting closer to Karen, not knowing that doing so places the fortune out of reach.

A searing commentary on the "win at all costs" mentality of American high school sports. David Lee Birdsong is the smalltown quarterback hoping to escape with a college scholarship and a pro career. David's father is the overbearing taskmaster vicariously living through his son. The third side of the triangle is Coach Marshall, a hypercritical and cruel man who sees David as the key to his future success. David's lockstep commitment to his father and coach is altered when he witnesses a teammate die after a grueling practice.

A roaming hillbilly, on a quest to defy the Devil, encounters several supernatural characters and does battle with his silver-stringed guitar.

Charlie and his troublesome cousin Paulie decide to steal $150000 in order to back a "sure thing" race horse that Paulie has inside information on. The aftermath of the robbery gets them into serious trouble with the local Mafia boss and the corrupt New York City police department.