On screening Aliens for a slumber party of 11 year old boys:

I love works of culture that bisect their genre. There were symphonies before Beethoven, and symphonies after Beethoven. There were comedies before Animal House and comedies after Animal House. For action and sci-fi action movies, there were movies before Die Hard and Aliens, and there are movies after.

In all of these cases, the pieces after are a wholly better ballgame because the piece bisecting the genre changed it so completely.