The Bit Players venture into the dangerous unknown of outer space for this week's podcast on Ridley Scott's 1979 classic sci-fi horror movie, Alien. The guys unpack the film's horror elements as they blend so well with such authentic science fiction, along with the ways that Alien serves as the perfect bridge between classic and modern horror, both drawing upon past conventions and beginning new ones for films to follow. They also break down the ways in which the science fiction allows Scott to examine morality in dire situations, and how he juxtaposes that firmly human trait with the synthetic beings that lurk in the film's shadows. Much is also made of how the Xenomorph managed to pack those pounds on so quickly with such a sparse diet, as well as the ways that Sigourney Weaver's Ripley broke new ground for female protagonists in horror.

The Bit Players head to Blithe Hollow this week for their podcast episode on LAIKA Studio's 2012 stop-motion film ParaNorman. The film falls in a long line of kid-friendly horror that was a huge part of modern adult moviegoers' personal history of post-trick-or-treat Halloween nights as kids, so they discuss the feelings of nostalgia that the relatively benign take on horror brought about as well as the way ParaNorman constantly subverts those limitations with adult complexities and morality lessons valuable to kids and parents alike. Much like the more well-known efforts of Pixar, LAIKA makes universal films, but the guys discuss the ways that ParaNorman is different from a typical Pixar flick, most notably in style and its tangibly hands-on animation.

The Bit Players buddy up for a bank-robbing adventure through Bolivia with this week's podcast on Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The guys talk about the brilliance of William Goldman's screenplay and how the constant levity and interplay of the film's two leads, Robert Redford and Paul Newman, keeps things fun throughout its duration. They discuss whether a film of such lighthearted tone could be considered a "classic" Western, and whether that's even what Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid strikes to be, modern-day comparisons of star power, and what the town folk must have been thinking about getting robbed blind by the hottest dudes in Bolivia.

The Bit Players get back into the ring with Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese for their podcast on Raging Bull. The film was released in 1980 and easily held the mantle of film of that decade for many critics, but the Bit Players are not many critics. Listen as they try to reconcile Scorsese's baffling monochromatic decision and art-house boxing style with one of the greatest acting performances and character studies they've seen in the podcast's year-plus history. They worry about Joe Pesci's anger problems and De Niro's complex carbohydrate problems and how to quantify a canon ball like Raging Bull when it comes to ratings.

The guys see the miracles this week on their podcast episode covering M. Night Shyamalan's 2002 film Signs. What starts as an attempt to critically break down the film, featuring one of each Mel Gibson's and Joaquin Phoenix's greatest performances, the podcast basically turns into a love-fest for what the Bit Players see as Shyamalan's greatest directorial achievement. Signs certainly seems to be the point in which everything best clicked for the polarizing filmmaker, where the otherworldly perfectly balances the humane and an understanding of self and family creates an understanding of the world at large.

Forget it, Bit Players. It's Chinatown. The guys dig into Roman Polanski's 1974 film starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway on this week's podcast. They break down their feelings going into a film that carries such a critical weight - making it feel must-see - and palpable dread that comes with sitting through a 131-minute classic, and how those feelings played out and potentially changed as the film unfolded. They compare the film to other crime noir films of its ilk, trying to place it in the ranks of the film canon.

The guys phone home this week as they talk about another Steven Spielberg masterpiece, 1982's E.T. the Extraterrestrial. Though the film remains to this day such a cultural touchstone, it surprisingly slipped past a few of the Bit Players, so they discuss the way the film resonates with new viewers, no matter the age. It's a story of hope and childhood wonder, and those are things that just never fade, so E.T. remains a constant friend, all throughout one's life.

The guys feel the heat around the corner this week as they discuss Michael Mann's 1995 crime classic Heat. Aside from just being an incredible movie, Heat is probably most known for finally bringing acting titans Robert De Niro and Al Pacino together on screen for the first time, and the guys talk about how it's a film that seems to play on the real-life movie magic as it makes its statement on two men who will do anything to get the job done and can't seem to turn away from their work. The episode is about that, sure, but it's really mostly about Val Kilmer's ponytail.

The guys take a leap off of the top rope with Randy "The Ram" Robinson in Darren Aronofsky's brilliant 2008 film, The Wrestler. Despite the terribly depressing tone of the film and the way that it ends, they search for some redemption in the small moments that Mickey Rourke's character manages to find, and how those moments are what make the film such a terrific one. The wrestling connoisseurs of the group break down the legitimacy of the wrestling scenes and they compare the film to the much more popular genre of boxing films.

All work and no play makes the Bit Players dull boys as they return from hiatus to cover Stanley Kubrick's classic horror flick, The Shining. Join the guys for a lovely hour getaway in the lovely room 237 at the Overlook Hotel, discussing Kubrick's intensely honed-in vision and the way that vision, combined with having to work everyday alongside Jack Nicholson, just about destroyed Shelley Duvall, the allure of the scare in film, and all of the ridiculous theories that have spawned from the film due to its rather ambiguous nature.