June 2, 2025 · Watch the official trailer
Every location audiences see in the new Guy Ritchie film is 100% authentic.
When viewers experience John Krasinski and Natalie Portman gazing in awe at the pyramids of Giza, the actors are actually there sans green screen in the first film production to shoot at the seventh Wonder of the World in more than 50 years.
The attention to detail that's required in a film production to generate such authenticity requires a sizable production budget, and “Fountain of Youth” takes all of its 180 million dollars to make a two-hour action-adventure film that feels entirely of the places that it showcases.
What audiences actually get, however, is something significantly more lackluster.
Despite A-listers on screen and a talented auteur behind the camera, “Fountain of Youth” is yet another Apple Studios project to limp directly onto its Apple TV+ service without a single weekend on the big screen as the tech giant essentially hemorrhages cash to in search of yet another hit.
Good fortune may be on the horizon for Apple, though, with their upcoming Brad Pitt- led “F1” movie said to have an extended theatrical run nationwide and in IMAX.
Guy Ritchie's film, however, is middling at best taking a variety of different inspirations and cramming them all together for a movie that's two parts “National Treasure,” one part “The Thomas Crown Affair,” and has some of the most lazy, uninspired writing from the man who penned “Zodiac” that one might imagine.
The film stars Krasinski as an art thief and historian on the run from Interpol and a secret organization as he recruits his reluctant sister to join him on a quest to track down clues to seek the seemingly unattainable and titular fountain of youth.
This international treasure hunt at times has the pulpy narrative twist and turns of a Dan Brown novel, though the over-the-top campiness and relatively safe nature of the script simply washes the film out in overly bright colors that leave audiences feeling somewhat empty.
Though he's found success on the small screen as the classic Tom Clancy character Jack Ryan, Krasinski is an odd choice to play the anti-hero Luke here with his wry smile and somewhat overly exaggerated eye rolls playing a bit too close to a “nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean” style of relating to the audience.
His chemistry or lack thereof with Portman as siblings who have a somewhat fractured relationship doesn't really work, especially given how Krasinski is clearly trying to spend most of his time cobbling together cinematic sparks with Eisa González in a storyline that largely falls flat.
For her part, Portman is shoehorned into a bland, whiny single mom with a kid dragging down her individualism and she's unable to escape the narrative wet blanket that her character is forced to become over the course of the film.
For a director that's known for sharp, crisp dialogue in snappy visuals both in his classic British crime capers like “Snatch” or “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” as well as popcorn box office fodder like the “Sherlock Holmes” films, there's an empty lack of spark to “Fountain Of Youth” that almost makes it feel like the film is Ritchie's in name alone.
Aside from being shot in practical locations and the random ocean liner set piece in the middle of the film, there aren't any exciting action sequences within “Fountain Of Youth” and the film’s limited twist and turns are telegraphed far too obviously though it's unclear whether that is a screenplay or directorial issue.
“Fountain Of Youth” might not even be worth watching despite its ease of access on Apple TV+ unless cinephiles are really interested in something casual that they can turn their brain off for.
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