Watchdog

Tuesday I screened a film called "Never Back Down," which opens Friday and is built around mixed martial arts.

Is it worth seeing? It's not really fair for me to say, since I haven't been part of its target audience since the original "Rocky" came out. Speaking of which, this cliche-ridden flick features athletes in training chugging, yup, raw eggs.

Look, I'm no expert on MMA action and thus can't speak to its realism here. Plus, again, I haven't been an expert on teen-oriented movies since the Carter Administration.

But for what it is, this is done well, highlighted by solid acting from the formidable Djimon Hounsou (Blood Diamond) and Sean Faris (who looks a lot like a 1980s-era Tom Cruise), plus all sorts of fresh young faces and rippling young abs.

The real story here is this: MMA has become so mainstream in general and so popular among young males in particular that it now qualifies as the focal point of a teen movie.

This is a film that will someday belong in an early 21st century time capsule. YouTube even has a major supporting role!

(UPDATE: Joe Fernandez has linked to this post from his MMA blog. Joe knows much, much more about this sport than I do. So does my boss, by the way. You know you're old when you have a boss much younger than you.)