Fountain of Youth

FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://fandomwire.com/fountain-of-youth-review/ "Fountain of Youth is a prime example of how to craft quality, crowd-pleasing entertainment without reinventing the wheel. Is it predictable? Absolutely. Formulaic? No doubt. But it’s undeniably fun, visually engaging, and driven by a charismatic cast and a director who knows exactly what he’s doing. Guy Ritchie brings his trademark energy without betraying the genre’s core identity, and James Vanderbilt delivers a solid, compelling script. It’s a shame the film didn’t get the theater release it deserved – like the ancient sites it explores, it should have been experienced in all its grandeur." Rating: B

I came into this movie hearing that it wasn’t all that was cracked up to be, that it was a bit lifeless and a paint by numbers movie. I can’t really dispute that. But since I was walking in with my eyes wide open, I enjoyed it for what it was. There isn’t enough exploration or exposition that gives us any idea what the characters are really about and we’re left to pee together through throwaway lines and a bunch of inferences. There are several characters that are involved that you never find out what their backstory is, why they’re doing what they’re doing, or what the end goal is. The story is one we’ve all heard before, and the neat little tricks and puzzles. It takes to find the end goal is clever and brings back memories of the da Vinci code and other similar stories. This will be one of those movies that’s on and families can enjoy for quite some time, but it won’t win any awards. Still it entertained me for the two hours it was on and at this point, that’s all I’m looking for in movies.