Thanks for the Godard recommendations, I'll start there for sure.
Haha, that guy sounds like a basket case. Those are some real winner character traits he has. I hate DVDs myself, well DVD players really. I have three of them, and only one kind of works. The oldest (and also non functioning) is like eight years old. However I have a vcr sitting in my garage from fucking 92 or something that I guarantee will work the minute I dust it off and plug it in. I'm gonna be watching VHS until I'm dead. I hope they never stop making blank vhs tapes. I don't have one of those newer plasma tvs that's really supposed to bring out the difference between dvd/blue-ray and vhs, so really there's no difference for me between the two.
But yeah, I've known people to reject watching a movie because it was black and white or in subtitles, which are both still extremely awful reasons. But man, not watching a movie because it's digital takes the cake.
Now I don't know anyone nearly as insane as the guy you just described, but I do know this one guy who has maybe the saddest requirement ever for the films he watches that I can possibly think of. He won't watch anything that came out before 1990. And geez he told me this a few years ago, he may have updated it to '93 by now. But he just won't watch anything with remotely any age on it because he can't stand the way the film looks or how dated the special effects might be. His F/X have to be top of the line. Well, under his definition anyway, like that Constatine/Van Helsing stuff, he's all about those movies. But just thinking about the 80+ years of amazing cinema he's going to miss simply because it's 'too old' for him makes me nauseous. He's also one of those guys that really scrutinizes every aspect of a film. Like rates every factor individually, like cinematography 6/10, writing 7.5/10. Shit like that. I barely handle whole ratings as it is, but he's just too much.
I agree with you on that point as well, I think for anyone with a serious in anything really, you have to be able indulge in some things that you hate. Cause man, if you're gonna hate it, you have to at least understand why you hate it. Like David Lynch I suppose for me. I'm not really a fan of his. But I'd really hate to be on the spot after saying I didn't like Lynch and then hearing someone say "Well which ones have you seen?" and then having to say 'uh well, I saw part of Dune and part of Muholland Dr.' So I watch his movies, even though I don't really like his style or anything and at times I'll be pleasantly surprised as I've enjoyed Blue Velvet and Elephant Man. And I guess I'll Eraserhead a third try and see if it finally magically hits me. But whatever, yeah I think it's important to be familiar even with the stuff you don't like.
And oh yeah, that last bit. Professional reviewers are so weird to me. They all have those awful rating systems (two thumbs up! 3/4 stars!). But what I also hate is how um, sterile their reviews sound. Like they'll say something, but it doesn't sound like they're saying anything at all! I was reading the Battlefield Earth wiki and Leonard Maltin's (who's the worst of the worst, fuck that guy) review read like this:
"Clumsy plot, misplaced satire, unbelievable coincidences and a leaden pace trample Travolta's weird but amusing performance."
I mean, that doesn't even sound like he watched the movie! It's like he talked about the movie without talking about it. Man, those guys are ridiculous. I would value anyone's review of a movie on this board infinitely more than those guys haha.
ANYWAY
I saw the Strange World of Coffin Joe sometime a little while back on IFC. It wasn't NEARLY as good as the first two Coffin Joe movies, probably because he's not really featured in it. But there are still neat things about this one. It's an anthology movie like the Twilight Zone or Tales From Crypt pictures. And the first story is the best about the Dollmaker. Although you can kind of predict where it's going to go it's still fun to watch because the end result is pretty chilling. But yeah, it feels like a short film, all of the segments are like twenty minutes, so the whole thing feel pretty quick. I probably won't ever feel like watching it again, and it's not nearly as memorable as the first two coffin joe pictures, which are both fantastic.