On the subject of cinema, John Fossett and Patrick Gulke agree on a lot of things.

The cinematic merits of Will Smith are not one of them.

When the duo was considering silver screen fare for the list of potential offerings by the Island Film Group, Fossett’s grand plan for a triple feature showcasing all three major films based on the famed Richard Matheson novel “I Am Legend” — 1964’s “The Last Man on Earth” starring Vincent Price, 1971’s “The Omega Man” starring Charlton Heston and the 2007 reincarnation with Smith — was quickly vetoed by Gulke.

“I’m not really a hater, but I did kind of put the kibosh on showing anything with Will Smith,” Gulke admitted. “It’s not even so much that I think he’s so awful, there’s just too many films to choose from to waste our little time that we have here.”

That “little” time, of course, is the second Wednesday evening of every month when Fossett and Gulke host their monthly screening and subsequent cinematic discussions in the conference room at the Bainbridge Public Library.

They also do not agree on how long the group has been meeting. Like the quasi-cantankerous issue of Will Smith’s acting merits, the exact date of the group’s first screening is an issue of some debate.

“I think this is our eighth year,” Fossett said.

“I don’t think it could have been eight years,” Gulke countered. “Seven, maybe.”

Regardless, the pair concur on the group’s primary goal: to bring cinematic gems from off the beaten track to island movie lovers.

“The way we pick the films is, we try to pick a mix of classics, critically acclaimed, maybe even occasionally cult classics,” Fossett said. “We try to stay away from the things you can see on late night TV, the Turner Network sort of thing.

“We’re just trying to expand people’s horizons,” he added.

Every year, around the end of the summer, the two movie lovers, both long-time library employees, each compile independent lists of up to 15 films they think are candidates for showcasing.

Then, they swap lists and each picks six from the other’s list, making a full calendar of films.

The first film they ever showed — even if they can’t agree on exactly when it happened — was “In the Heat of the Night” (1965).

The most recent? “The Misfits” (1961) screened in August to a crowd of nearly two dozen film fans.

“We average about 20 people,” Fossett said, including a group of hardcore regulars. “But we’ve had as many as 45, 48.”

Strangely enough, the pair reported, genre films — no matter how classic — tend to draw a smaller crowd. Indeed, only about 10 people showed up at their screening of the Bruce Lee epic “Enter the Dragon” (1973) in June.

“That’s the thing where we lose numbers sometimes, where we show sci-fi and horror. Any of that genre stuff, we tend to lose a few people,” Gulke said.

“People, they like the drama and they like the bio pic type of stuff,” Fossett agreed. “Westerns? They don’t show up quite so much.”

Even so, they try to include a western and musical in every year’s line-up.

“Of course,” Fossett confided, “Patrick’s not a big musical guy, [but] I love them.”

Some films slated to round out the rest of the year include “Lost in America” (1985), “Rope” (1948) — “We try to pick a Hitchcock every year,” Fossett said — and “Papillon” (1973).

Post-screening discussions run the gamut from casual trivia to heated cinematic debates.

“The longest conversation we’ve had has been 35 minutes, maybe,” Fossett said. “And then there’s been times where, 20 minutes [later] and we’re putting the chairs away.

“If everybody likes the movie, there’s not really a lot of conversation,” he added.

“I love it when people speak up when they don’t care for something,” Gulke agreed. “We want to hear it because that’s what makes it interesting.”

Clearly not just for the hosts, either, is the idea of conversation important.

In this modern age of ever-improving home theater systems and the instant streaming capability of everyone with an internet connection to see nearly every movie ever made on demand, some culture analysts have posited that we are losing our ability to watch a movie in public venues.

With the rising cost of ticket prices, the constantly looming threat of somebody on a cell phone or a screaming baby in the back somewhere, have we lost our ability to enjoy a film as a group?

“I probably would have said ‘yeah’ a long time ago,” Gulke said. “When we first started this, one of my first worries was, ‘When you can check it out from the library and take it home and watch it, why come here and sit in our uncomfortable chairs and watch it?’

“And yet, people do,” he laughed. “The conversation about it is, for me, as much a part of it as the movie.”