Fountain Of Youth ★★

Released: 23^rd May 2025

Director: Guy Ritchie

Starring: John Krasinski, Natalie Portman, Eiza González, Domhnall Gleeson, Stanley Tucci

There are no shortage of treasure hunters and grave robbers in cinema. Harrison Ford’s Indiana Jones, Nicholas Cage’s Bill Gates in National Treasure and Michael Douglas’ Jack Colton in Romancing the Stone to name a few. The latest film aping them is Guy Ritchie’s Fountain of Youth, with a stacked cast and the globetrotting required. Does X mark the spot here or is it considerably wide of the mark?

John Krasinski plays Luke Purdue, a maverick art and heirloom thief, who has been hired by a dying billionaire to find the fabled fountain of youth. Along for the ride are his father’s old team and his estranged sister Charlotte (Natalie Portman).

A frenetic opening ten minutes is some of the film’s most entertaining moments as Luke dodges a series of opposing forces, also looking for clues through the backstreets of Thailand and on a moving train. It is a pity that the fun of the action sequences and exotic locations this type of film provides aren’t evident in the script or performances. The dialogue feels incredibly forced and often tries to feel too smart, instead coming across as fake.

From the plot and structure to locations, it feels like a by-the-numbers Indiana Jones rip-off. While franchises like The Mummy or National Treasure have been cut from a similar cloth, they have at least brought something fresh to the screen. There is little here that is an original take on this type of storyline. It is a shame to waste a cast of this calibre, and there is little to suggest Ritchie was involved beyond a handful of action sequences.

What should be a fun romp just feels like a chore, and at 2 hrs is far too long. There is certainly no fortune and glory to be found in Fountain Of Youth. While there are moments of visual invention in the set pieces, it is too repetitive and derivative to stand out in an already crowded genre. The Uncharted game series for example brought something new to this type of story, offering compelling characters and action, whereas Fountain of Youth is sorely lacking in many areas.