To be fair, bullet-time is its own animal.

It was listed by AVGN as one of the "worst clichés" around, and I kinda agree - it's been copied and spoofed all by itself for long enough, and should probably be viewed distinctively from whatever other influences the Matrix had on subsequent movies.

One of the positive long-term "influences", not so much on movies as on everyday communication, would be the blue pill - red pill allegory.

Is there any better, more compact imagery to express a view on "illusion vs. reality" in a conversation? I'd say it more or less beat the ostrich in the sand analogy, but that's just kinda my experience :)

But I digress...