Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

ScoobyWell Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Crwthod A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

classicsoncall So much talent, so little accomplishment. George Segal, Karen Black, Hector Elizondo, Paula Prentiss, Robert DeNiro and Burt Young - can you come up with a better lineup for the early Seventies? I'm definitely in the minority here after reading the many stellar reviews for "Born to Win", but this was just a complete bore for me. That generally happens when one of the defining scenes involves a spaced out junkie (Segal) attempting to steal a car on the street, and the owner (Black) comes off accepting it as kind of cute. I don't get it. Nor did I get the rest of the film. It didn't help that the print I viewed had muffled audio and much of the dialog was difficult to hear, but I don't know if a better quality transfer would have helped. Besides that, don't blink, or you'll miss the second half of the cast I mentioned earlier. 'Born to Lose' would have been a better title.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** Brutal gritty as well as funny, in its more light hearted scenes, "Born to Win" is about a loser Mr. J, George Seagal, who's addiction to drugs finally catches up with him. That's when Mr. J outlives his usefulness to his big time drug supplier known as "The Geek", Hector Elizondo, and the two narcotic cops Ed Medsen and his partner Danny, played by a 27 year old Robert De Niro, who are using Mr.J. to set "The Geek" up.Trying to kick the habit Mr. J knows his addiction will eventually kill him but him kicking it is easier said then done. With him hanging around junkies like himself he only makes things worse in the company that he keeps. There's also the free spirited Parm, Karen Black, who for some strange reason gets the hots for the shaggy dog looking Mr.J after she caught him trying to steal her car in midtown Manhattan. We later see in Pram's duplex West Side Manhattan apartment, where does she get the cash to pay the rent, that she has a couple of cats, a back and orange one, as pets! Can it be that she want's to give Mr.J, who's as cuddly and cute like a puppy dog, a roof over his head and three meals a day as well? With all this good luck Mr.J is still craving for the good stuff, heroin, and that leads him as well as his junkie friend Billy Dynamite, Jay Fletcher, to rob drug smuggler Stanley,Irving Selbst, of his monthly heroin shipment supplied to him by "The Geek". In doing that both of them, Mr.J & Billy Dynamite, are targeted by "The Geek's" boys for immediate termination. What's even worse for Mr. J the cops, Danny & Madsen, now got something else on him beside his drug using and trafficking. In that they now arrested Parm on trumped up charges threatening to send her up the river, prison, on a both phony drug and prostitution rap.***SPOILERS*** With Pram now in the clink and him facing as much as 40 years behind bars for not cooperating with the police, in fact he did but couldn't get him to bite at the bait,in setting up "The Geek" Mr.J now has another big and shocking surprise coming to him. That's in the drugs he was to get from "The Geek" as a reward for his services that was hidden under the sink in a public mens washroom. Giving his good friend and fellow junkie Billy Dynamite the first taste or shot he suddenly goes into convulsions and dropped dead on the spot! As it turned out "The Geek" handed him a hot load in payment for trying to set him up! But it was the luckless Billy Dynamite who ended up getting it! P.S One of actor George Seagal's personal favorites which he put his heart & soul as well as money into. Nowhere as good and as "Panic in Needle Park" which was released the same year but still hits the spot in what hard drug addiction, that seemed to have become hip at the time, can do to a person who thinks he can handle it. Not only does it destroy him but everyone he comes in contact with even those, like Pram, who aren't addicted to it!

Kieran Green 'BORN TO WIN' Is a Downbeat, but Somewhat very funny look at drug addicts, in New York, The ever Excellent George Segal, plays JJ a former Hairdresser,Who is fixed on heroin,and with him on his quest for the perfect fix is his pal played by Jay Fletcer,One night on the streets JJ is attempting to steal a car,but is amusingly caught by the owner who is played by the free spirited Karen Black,who brings Segal home together the pair fall for each other despite Segal's, desperate Heroin ridden antics,Cult Favorite Paula Prentiss,(The Original Stepford Wives) plays JJ's former wife who is Highly strung, unfortunately she becomes property of the local pimp and supplier 'geek' played by Hector Elizondo, One scene in this classic that's worth mentioning is Segal's superb knack for physical comedy is the 'take your clothes off' scene, that see's Segal, at the mercy of the supplier's the scene where Segal attempts to get the attention of the teenager across at the adjacent apartment is a hoot! And Segal's subsequent chase clad only in a robe is hilarious! A Very Young Robert De' Niro, plays an undercover cop out to bust JJ,Don't be fooled by the many DVD's available of this classic with 'De Niro on the cover Segal is the Star!

laursene ... not to direct - Ivan Passer's a master who ought to have steady employment and somehow doesn't. But can someone request Scorsese to get behind a restoration of this fine film? It may have been made on a low budget, but that's no reason why the only way to see it anymore is on disgracefully butchered videotapes that leave the story in fragments and turn the color photography into mush (I doubt it was quite this bad when originally released).I recall from Pauline Kael's review back when it came out that "Born to Win" was dumped on the market and hardly got an audience even then. Maybe with a decent restoration, and a nice DVD transfer, it can finally get some justice? And Ivan Passer can finally get some good projects to work on?On the critical note, and having seen both Born to Win and Midnight Cowboy again recently, I can say that Passer's film holds up a hell of a lot better than Schlesinger's rather more pretentious contraption. Less showboaty, but also far less sentimental and way more powerful. And a good job by the whole cast.