Director Guy Ritchie Globe Trots and brings John Krasinski and Natalie Portman with him on the big budget adventure Fountain of Youth.
Director Guy Ritchie continues to prove there isn’t any genre that he isn’t tailored fitted for. Fountain of Youth his big budget globe spanning adventure finds the director’s trademark cheeky rude boy attitude – shaken, not stirred – into a genre concoction that lands somewhere between National Treasure and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Estranged brother and sister Luke and Charlotte Purdue (John Krasinski and Natalie Portman) are brought together to find the fountain of youth. Funded by a mysterious, is there any other kind, Billionaire (Domhnall Gleason) – the duo along with their plucky team (Laz Alonso and Carmen Ejogo) steal various rare artifacts, in fact clues, to the location of the oft-sought mythical well. Along the way the team is doggedly perused by not only a determined Interpol Agent (Arian Moayed) but a deadly assassin (Eiza González) who will stop at nothing to keep the fountain’s secrets hidden.
This reviewer as a young male misspent most of his childhood watching the glut of Indiana Jones knock-offs (along with the Trilogy of Jones adventures). Jake Speed, Raiders of Atlantis, King Solomon’s Mines, Romancing the Stone, Jewel of the Nile, and on and on. The best of these were the ones that took the concept of the adventure and treasure seeking and make it their own. Director Ritchie and screenwriter James Vanderbilt have taken Ritchie’s very English sensibilities and successfully transferred it into the genre.
The result is an often-times cheeky and fun bawdy adventure films that plays a bit naughtier than your average film of this ilk. Be it stealing a Rembrandt, raising the Lusitanian, a pre-teen getting a sip or a glass of Champaigne Ritchie’s film gleefully makes thievery as fun good time affair. The set pieces are big and shiny and fun in a way that the best of Ritchie’s work is. The energy he captures along with the fun cheeky score by Christopher Benstead makes the film’s 125 runtime fly by.
The film so focused on the task at hand some of the supporting characters like the ones played by Arian Moayed, Laz Alonso and Carmen Ejogo get the short shift. Not to mention that the impeccable always perfect Stanley Tucci’s role is relegated to a mere cameo. One wishes with all of these very talented actors they could have made the film ten minutes longer to give them more than the required plot expositions. Especially, when you consider that Krasinski, Portman, Gleeson and González all get to play beyond the action set pieces – which is a refreshing change of pace – all bantering dialog about.
The ending does at first appear to be standard VFX issue puzzle solving but Vanderbilt has constructed an ode to The Last Crusade that’s just different enough that one finds the ending satisfying in the way that Spielberg film still is. Though unlike The Last Crusade in true Ritchie rude boy spirit his film ends with an Oasis needle drop. Fountain of Youth is an excellent action-adventure film with the right amount of attitude and wit to separate it from most of its predecessors.
Fountain of Youth premieres globally Apple TV+ starting May 23rd
Director Guy Ritchie Globe Trots and brings John Krasinski and Natalie Portman with him on the big budget adventure Fountain of Youth.
Director Guy Ritchie continues to prove there isn’t any genre that he isn’t tailored fitted for. Fountain of Youth his big budget globe spanning adventure finds the director’s trademark cheeky rude boy attitude – shaken, not stirred – into a genre concoction that lands somewhere between National Treasure and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
Estranged brother and sister Luke and Charlotte Purdue (John Krasinski and Natalie Portman) are brought together to find the fountain of youth. Funded by a mysterious, is there any other kind, Billionaire (Domhnall Gleason) – the duo along with their plucky team (Laz Alonso and Carmen Ejogo) steal various rare artifacts, in fact clues, to the location of the oft-sought mythical well. Along the way the team is doggedly perused by not only a determined Interpol Agent (Arian Moayed) but a deadly assassin (Eiza González) who will stop at nothing to keep the fountain’s secrets hidden.
This reviewer as a young male misspent most of his childhood watching the glut of Indiana Jones knock-offs (along with the Trilogy of Jones adventures). Jake Speed, Raiders of Atlantis, King Solomon’s Mines, Romancing the Stone, Jewel of the Nile, and on and on. The best of these were the ones that took the concept of the adventure and treasure seeking and make it their own. Director Ritchie and screenwriter James Vanderbilt have taken Ritchie’s very English sensibilities and successfully transferred it into the genre.
The result is an often-times cheeky and fun bawdy adventure films that plays a bit naughtier than your average film of this ilk. Be it stealing a Rembrandt, raising the Lusitanian, a pre-teen getting a sip or a glass of Champaigne Ritchie’s film gleefully makes thievery as fun good time affair. The set pieces are big and shiny and fun in a way that the best of Ritchie’s work is. The energy he captures along with the fun cheeky score by Christopher Benstead makes the film’s 125 runtime fly by.
The film so focused on the task at hand some of the supporting characters like the ones played by Arian Moayed, Laz Alonso and Carmen Ejogo get the short shift. Not to mention that the impeccable always perfect Stanley Tucci’s role is relegated to a mere cameo. One wishes with all of these very talented actors they could have made the film ten minutes longer to give them more than the required plot expositions. Especially, when you consider that Krasinski, Portman, Gleeson and González all get to play beyond the action set pieces – which is a refreshing change of pace – all bantering dialog about.
The ending does at first appear to be standard VFX issue puzzle solving but Vanderbilt has constructed an ode to The Last Crusade that’s just different enough that one finds the ending satisfying in the way that Spielberg film still is. Though unlike The Last Crusade in true Ritchie rude boy spirit his film ends with an Oasis needle drop. Fountain of Youth is an excellent action-adventure film with the right amount of attitude and wit to separate it from most of its predecessors.
Fountain of Youth premieres globally Apple TV+ starting May 23rd
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