Cadet Kelly, on Disney Channel
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This first aired in 2002, but I didn't see it until 2025, as part of my Summer of Disney Channel Original Movies. Before I watched it, I wasn't sure I'd like it much, and for a ways into it, I still wasn't sure. But by the end, I liked it just a bit more than I expected to.

Hilary Duff plays teenager Kelly Collins, whose life is upended when her divorced mother, Samantha (Linda Kash), marries Brigadier General Joe Maxwell (Gary Cole). They move upstate, and Kelly is forced to attend George Washington Military Academy, where Joe has just become the new commandant. I guess it's the only school in the area, but still, if I were her I would have refused to become a cadet. I'd attend regular classes, but all the military stuff I would sit out, no matter what they tried to do to me. After all, military school is generally something you either sign up for, or is used as a punishment. Neither case applied to Kelly. What's worse, she's only able to spend weekends at her mother and stepfather's house. The rest of the time, she has to live in the barracks, with all the other cadets. She soon makes a new friend named Carla, but she also gets on the bad side of Cadet Captain Jennifer Stone (Christy Romano). Stone doesn't like how free-spirited Kelly is, and things get worse when they're both interested in Cadet Major Brad Rigby (Shawn Ashmore). Spoiler alert: nothing romantic ever happens between any of them. But Brad does find Kelly funny, and treats her better than Stone does.

At one point, Kelly fails an obstacle course, and Stone forces her to redo it, leaving another cadet named Gloria Ramos in charge. Kelly ends up befriending her. And then... there is an incident I won't spoil, but Kelly ends up being court martialed, and found guilty of various infractions. The commandant sentences her to become equipment manager for the school's drill team. Eventually, she decides she wants to try out to become a member of the team, and Ramos trains her. She gets a place on the team, and later Brad decides to have her and Stone work together in a regional competition the team takes part in. But something happens that could prevent that, which I won't spoil. But it does lead to Kelly and her stepfather becoming closer.

And I guess that's all I want to reveal of the plot. I did think the drill team was pretty good, even if I think it's a little strange for the military to engage in such pageantry. Like, their moves are impressive and sort of artistic in a way, like a dance, but I don't think those moves would serve any purpose on the battlefield. Still, I think it was a good way of having Kelly incorporate her own artistic side into academy life. The movie is in many ways a bit silly and formulaic, and definitely seems like something that would appeal to younger teens and tweens more than adults. But it had its good points, both in terms of humor and drama. Overall, I thought it was okay.