Two films, two fighters - a whole bunch of similarities

Uma. Black Mamba. The Bride.Keanu. Neo. The One.

Kill Bill. The Matrix.

Inspired by comic books, the Internet, Japanese anime and Hong Kong chopsocky flicks, Quentin Tarantino's long-awaited Kill Bill, Vol. 1, with Uma Thurman as an avenging assassin, and Andy and Larry Wachowski's not-so-long-awaited The Matrix Revolutions, due Nov. 5 with Keanu Reeves as a hacker-messiah, have more in common than their vowel-happy stars and tsunamis of hype.

Crowd control

Kill Bill: In the "Showdown at the House of Blue Leaves," Uma battles a swarm of black-clad, kickboxing foot soldiers sent by the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad to kill her.

The Matrix Revolutions: In the murky metropolis that is Zion, Keanu does his Superman shtick against a relentless swarm of Sentinels - and an endless wave of black-clad, kickboxing Agent Smith clones.

Time maintenance

Kill Bill: Too long to be released in one digestible chunk, Tarantino's movie has been lopped in two, which begs the question: Is Kill Bill, Vol. 2, due Feb. 20, going to be marketed as "the fifth film by Quentin Tarantino"?

The Matrix Reloaded and Revolutions: Shot consecutively to save money and time, the second and third Matrix are being released six months apart (Reloaded opened May 14), which begs the question: After the stultifying cosmic cyberspeak of Reloaded, does anybody care?

What to wear?

Kill Bill: Uma sports a vibrant yellow motorcycle jumpsuit inspired by Bruce Lee.

The Matrix: Keanu favors a long black leather coat inspired by Shaft.

Ego alert

Kill Bill: "All I can say is, if I went and saw Kill Bill, I wouldn't be able to even think about seeing another movie until I saw Kill Bill again," Tarantino told Newsweek. "I'd feel like, 'That's a movie like sex. That's a movie like drugs,' you know?"

The Matrix: "We think the most important sort of fiction attempts to answer some of the big questions," the Wachowskis said in an online Q & A. "One of the things that we had talked about when we first had the idea of The Matrix was an idea that we believe philosophy and religion and mathematics all try to answer."

Zen and now

Kill Bill: After four years in a coma, The Bride wills her atrophied legs to move following a couple minutes of mind-over-matter meditation.

The Matrix: After six hours of their trilogy, Andy and Larry Wachowski still have Neo, Morpheus and Trinity spouting aphorisms such as "There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path."

Contact movie critic Steven Rea at 215-854-5629 or srea@phillynews.com.