Fountain of Youth

I've been asking for a new true adventure film since the last National Treasure, but I guess I just wanted it too much, and I got the curse instead of the blessing.

It looks fine, on the surface. Guy Ritchie makes an international hunt for treasure that certainly impresses visually, but in terms of content (and note that Ritchie didn't write this film, when writing is one of his true strengths as a filmmaker) it's as shallow as they come. Some rote puzzles, intermittent fist fights, and an utterly charmless gang of bystanders that follow Krasinski wherever he tells them to go. Stanley Tucci literally just shows up once, for about two minutes total, and you can almost see him just turn around to collect his paycheck at the end of his scene.

Do yourself a favor and go play the new Indiana Jones video game instead. It's so, so much better than this, and was made with true reverence for the art of adventure films.

How is this the same writer who wrote Zodiac??? The writing in Fountain of Youth was brutally cliche and soulless and derivative. So I'm praying Apple didn't do something idiotic like get some AI input or something, because that's what it felt like - painfully so at times.

The actors did the best they could with the script, and I LOVE that this is a non-franchise, non-reboot, original story. So a huge bravo for that, but the writing was just a constant distraction.

Guy Richie is Guy Richie, and I can see why he's a safe choice for film execs, but damn- this film is a good example of needing to raise the bar. Krasinski and Portman give it their all, but I felt bad for them having to deal with these characters and the painfully awkward dialogue.

If you thought national treasure was lame back in the day, fear not this is way worse. This makes that movie look like citizen kane. I'm a huge fan of John Krasinski but this is very poor.

It just doesn't flow very well, quite typical for a guy Ritchie movie I find. Just jumps from one exotic location to the next without a huge amount of thought about continuity. Every other movie John Krasinski has been in. He has been a complete departure from the office but honestly in this movie he looks more like Jim than anything else he's been in mannerisms aren't acting skills wise. Been waiting awhile for this to come out so yeah, I'm disappointed.

C'mon Guy Ritchie, Natalie Portman, and John Krasinski. I'm a huge fan of all three but this movie was painful. None of the characters were interesting, the "Dad" back story didn't build any intrigue, the fighting between the siblings was obnoxious, the dream sequences were cheesy, I could have made better special effects with my home computer a YouTube tutorial, and the ending was awful. The whole movie I kept thinking about how excited the actors must have been to sign on to work with Guy Ritchie, but then so disappointed to see the finished product. I expected way more than this embarassing dribble.

No, it's not National treasure 3, in fact it doesn't come that near to being as good as the first 2 National Treasure movies.

However I've seen much worse and it was still quiet enjoyable.

For me not enough of the puzzles and riddles from other films of this ilk and a lot left unexplained.

The film does have Guy Ritchie's style and flair all over it and the efforts of all actors are definitely not in question here. I think maybe this film needed a couple more rewrites before going ahead.

On the whole though, if you have 2 hours to spare and nothing to do.....give it a go.

Alternatively wait and hope for "National Treasure 3"