Apple hits a new low with Fountain of Youth, its worst-rated original film

TV critic Dan Barrett, in his “Always Be Watching” email newsletter, summed up what I think a lot of people are feeling in the wake … The post Apple hits a new low with Fountain of Youth, its worst-rated original film appeared first on BGR.

May 27, 2025 - 02:10

Apple hits a new low with Fountain of Youth, its worst-rated original film

TV critic Dan Barrett, in his “Always Be Watching” email newsletter, summed up what I think a lot of people are feeling in the wake of the disastrous debut of Apple TV+’s Fountain of Youth — the new feature film from director Guy Ritchie that’s now officially the worst-rated Apple original movie to-date. “Last night,” Barrett wrote in a post-release edition of his newsletter, “my wife woke me up three times on the couch between 8pm and 10:30pm.

“There were two key factors in my struggling to stay awake: 1. A toasty warm heater. 2. I was watching the new Apple TV+ film (Fountain of Youth). She told me to just ‘go to bed,’ but I was determined to see it through to the end. Because I do not value my time, apparently.”

He goes on to express frustration with how a film from a director like Ritchie -- who knows how to make films that are, while never great, at least entertaining -- and with a cast that includes actors like John Krasinski, Natalie Portman, Eiza González, Domhnall Gleeson, and Stanley Tucci could bomb so spectacularly. Based on its Rotten Tomatoes scores, for example, the movie is now officially the biggest Apple Original Films flop so far with both critics and viewers.

It's currently sitting on disastrous 36% and 44% critics' and audience scores, respectively, on the review aggregation site. Fountain of Youth is the clearest sign yet that while Apple has mastered prestige TV, its track record with original films still feels like a work in progress.

In the new movie, a pair of estranged siblings (played by Krasinski and Portman) race across the globe to find the one thing that money can’t buy: Immortality. They set about chasing eternal life, dodging danger, and bickering their way through a globe-trotting quest that feels like it's trying to be a cross between National Treasure and Indiana Jones. Unfortunately, it lands somewhere in the muddled middle -- which is unfortunate, because this one kicked off a wave of major feature film releases from Apple that continues with Echo Valley and F1 in June.

Audience raters on Rotten Tomatoes have panned the movie as everything from an obvious Razzies candidate to a movie that "does nothing, has nothing, gives nothing, says nothing. The dialogue is glib and nowhere will it put a smile on your face." Laments a viewer on X: "Can anyone explain how Apple manages to make great TV shows when their movies tend to be shite? Another great episode of Murderbot this week, but don’t waste your time with Fountain of Youth. It’s bloody awful."

Films like Fountain of Youth are making it increasingly clear that if Apple wants its film division to match the excellence of its TV slate, it’s going to need more than star power and globe-trotting plots — and it definitely needs to stop treating movies like what feels, at least from the outside, like a side project.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7S28bH8iDs

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Apple hits a new low with Fountain of Youth, its worst-rated original film originally appeared on BGR.com on Mon, 26 May 2025 at 14:19:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.