Reading the Tea Leaves

TCM’s Robert Osborne gets into the prediction game with the latest assemblage by Tom O’Neil over at The Envelope. You can click over to see the full list, but this is, more or less, how it shook down:

Also participating in the our pundit panel are Thelma Adams (Us Weekly), Erik Davis (AOL Cinematical), Scott Feinberg (AndTheWinnerIs), Paul Gaita (The Circuit, The Envelope), Pete Hammond (Notes on a Season, The Envelope), Elena Howe (The Envelope), Dave Karger (Entertainment Weekly), Kevin Lewin (World Entertainment News Network), Steve Pond (TheWrap), Richard Rushfield (Gawker), Peter Travers (Rolling Stone), Jeff Wells (Hollywood-Elsewhere) and Susan Wloszczyna (USA Today).

Only “The Hurt Locker” and “Invictus” get backing from all 16 sages. Scoring 15 is “Precious” (Lumenick doesn’t pick it) and “Up in the Air” (Lewin is a hold-out). Two gurus spurn “Up” (Feinberg and me) and three don’t back “Nine” (Gaita, Pond and Wloszczyna).

Missing from the “Avatar” bandwagon are Hammond and Wells. Pond and Travers are among the five gurus who don’t buy that “The Lovely Bones” will make it. And there’s less support for “An Education” than I thought there’d be (Karger and Hammond don’t think it will make the grade).

“THE HURT LOCKER” (16) ‚Äî Adams, Davis, Feinberg, Gaita, Hammond, Howe, Karger, Lewin, Lumenick, O’Neil, Osborne, Pond, Rushfield, Travers, Wells, Wloszczyna

“INVICTUS” (16) ‚Äî Adams, Davis, Feinberg, Gaita, Karger, Hammond, Howe, Lewin, Lumenick, O’Neil, Osborne, Pond, Rushfield, Travers, Wells, Wloszczyna

“PRECIOUS” (15) ‚Äî Adams, Davis, Feinberg, Gaita, Hammond, Howe, Karger, Lewin, O’Neil, Osborne, Pond, Rushfield, Travers, Wells, Wloszczyna

“UP IN THE AIR” (15) ‚Äî Adams, Davis, Feinberg, Gaita, Hammond, Howe, Karger, Lumenick, O’Neil, Osborne, Pond, Rushfield, Travers, Wells, Wloszczyna

“UP” (14) ‚Äî Adams, Davis, Gaita, Hammond, Howe, Karger, Lewin, Lumenick, Osborne, Pond, Rushfield, Travers, Wells, Wloszczyna

“NINE” (13) ‚Äî Adams, Davis, Feinberg, Hammond, Howe, Karger, Lewin, Lumenick, O’Neil, Osborne, Rushfield, Travers, Wells

“THE LOVELY BONES” (11) ‚Äî Adams, Davis, Feinberg, Gaita, Hammond, Howe, Karger, Lewin, Lumenick, O’Neil, Wloszczyna

“AVATAR” (10) ‚Äî Adams, Davis, Feinberg, Gaita, Karger, Lumenick, O’Neil, Pond, Travers, Wloszczyna

“AN EDUCATION” (10) ‚Äî Adams, Feinberg, Gaita, Howe, Osborne, Pond, Rushfield, Travers, Wells, Wloszczyna

I feel it is my duty to remind everyone that these are blind guesses, the way one might throw down some green at the Kentucky Derby, lay it all on the line for some good ink and a stellar track record.¬† Movies are, quite simply, magic. Everyone involved hopes that all of them will be the best things ever made, but half of the time, the results don’t match either the hype or the hope.¬†¬† At this stage in the game, you can’t really talk about who’s “ahead,” but rather, how perceptions are shifting. I suppose this is what ultimately drives the stock market, right? Perception? So maybe if they do it long enough there could end up being some “there” there, but for now, it is a game. A fun game, but a game nonetheless.