Guy Ritchie’s latest cinematic venture has landed on Apple TV+ today (Friday, 23rd May) to a less than stellar reception from critics.
Despite boasting a star-studded cast featuring John Krasinski and Natalie Portman, and an intriguing plot, the film has been slammed as trite and lacklustre in preliminary critiques.
Following on the heels of Ritchie’s streaming success with MobLand and The Gentlemen, his new movie premiered with a dismal 33 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes prior to its release, leaving it up to the weekend audience to form their own opinions.
Krasinski and Portman play the roles of Luke and Charlotte Purdue, sibling explorers who, after being estranged for over a year, are brought back together by a dying tycoon’s mission to find the mythical Fountain of Youth.
Their global trek to uncover historical hints plunges them into peril as they search for one of the most sought-after relics in the world, reports the Mirror US.
Although the premise may echo the thrills of an Indiana Jones escapade, consensus among reviewers is that the end result is an unremarkable flop, ranking amongst the worst films of 2025 thus far.
Awais from Filmhounds lamented on X (formerly Twitter): “fountain of youth is one of the worst films of the year!
“A film that should be a lot better than it is. it certainly looks the part – lavish, expensive, big. but it’s a soulless, vapid, and overwrought mess.”
Next Big Picture chimed in: “Worse than not being great, it never sinks to enough depths to become a terrible trainwreck, either.
“The average set pieces, mildly effective humor, and decent chemistry between the actors just make the experience all the more laborious to endure.”
The Hollywood Reporter also panned the film, saying: “It’s all as predictable as you’d expect, with the screenplay by James Vanderbilt failing to provide the wit necessary to make the film stand out in any way.”
Entertainment Weekly shared a similar sentiment: “The characterizations are flat, the would-be quippy dialogue rarely elicits laughs, and the action sequences seldom rise above the level of satisfactory.”
However, Collider offered a more mixed assessment, giving the film a 6/10 and stating: “The thing is, Fountain of Youth could have easily been just another bad movie made for streaming, and the fact that it isn’t is an accomplishment in of itself.
“It’s a perfectly watchable movie designed to keep you entertained for two hours on a rainy Sunday afternoon.”
Fountain of Youth is available to stream on Apple TV+.