That's because the brains in that vat aren't really speaking our language. What they are speaking, he said, is “vat-English,” because by “a tree” they don't mean a tree; they mean, roughly, a tree image. Presumably, by “Monica Bellucci” they mean “the image of Monica Bellucci in ‘Maléna,’” rather than the image of Monica Bellucci in “Matrix Reloaded,” brains-in-vats having taste and large DVD (Digital Video Disk) collections.
Via Ceejbot [1], “The Unreal Thing: What's wrong with the Matrix? [2]”
I found the original The Matrix [3] to be a decent film overall; the first half has a great set-up (which I can watch over and over again) but once Neo wakes up having taken the red pill, I tend to loose interest. I actually think Cypher had the right idea in that film (really, compared to conditions outside the Matrix, Neo didn't have that bad of a life inside the Matrix). Sure, the special effects were industry changing (like Star Wars [4]; another okay film that people went ga-ga over) but over all the story was fairly old hat to readers of Philip K. Dick.
And the review here of Matrix Reloaded [5] isn't kind. It's fun to read, but the reviewer didn't like the film much at all.
And that has me worried …
[1] http://www.ceejbot.com:8669/blog/space/2003-05-12
[2] http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/?030519crat_atlarge
[3] http://us.imdb.com/Title?0133093
[4] http://us.imdb.com/Title?0076759