Cadet Kelly

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Cadet Kelly-480P

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Trailer—Cadet Kelly

source: Cadet Kelly

Kelly, a bubbly (well, ditsy) teenage girl is yanked out of her New York school by her incredibly selfish mother en dull stepfather and put in a military school. Her boring step-dad is the new headmaster you see, 'commandant' even. She doesn't like it at first, in a (as a lot of people have already mentioned) Private Benjamin kinda way. Hell, who can blame her, she had absolutely no say in this pretty drastic turn of events. When she's about to quit, her extremely self absorbed mom announces she's pregnant, and Kelly decides to make it work after all, so the baby(!) won't be upset. Luckily, there's the gun twirling team to sort her out. Believe me, it looks as lame as it sounds, but at least Kelly can now put her girlie girl skills to some good and decent military use. And, after jeopardizing the twirling contest to get her absentminded (and selfish) birth-father out of some non convincing danger she is finally turned into a fine specimen of Disney Jugend. Since this movie was made in this newest of millenniums, they don't actually win the contest, of course, but they are the moral winners. So, the message is this kids: Conform, but do it in a quirky way! Thank you Disney. Still, Hillary Duff and Christy Carlson Romano are irresistible as usual, so it is pretty fun to watch, if you like high school type movies, like I do. But if that's the case you're still better off watching Mean Girls or a John Hughes classic.

I'm in a high school with a junior ROTC program and I thought this movie didn't capture everything entirely accurate. Kelly would've been expelled for the way she acted. And that clap thing they did, there is nothing quite just like that drill team wise in real life. There are teams classified as unarmed exhibition, but they would never really do things the way they did. Military bearing was not kept in the clap thing they did, which judges never would've liked. Otherwise, to anyone oblivious to they way things really are, it's a good movie.

I found this movie strange and interesting in the blatant way it promotes the army to children. In the army children will get friends, learn team-work, structure and discipline. As well as learn healthy competition and screaming at each other while juggling a rifle. What kid would not want that? To be a conformist cog in a well-oiled killing machine is fun! I cant help but think its like a Hollywood-Disneyfied version of the Third Reich propaganda films for the Hitler Jugend. Sick but cute. It is very interesting that a film like this can be made and put out into the mainstream culture, being treated like an ordinary family movie. I did not find it particularly wholesome.

Hilary Duff takes a stab at Cadet Kelly Colins, an artistic individual girl who's sent to military school. There, she makes friends, enemies and falls in love. Oh, and she saves her father. As if that was predictable enough! In theory, this is a bad movie. When you actually watch it, it's much, MUCH worse. Don't get me wrong, I'm usually a fan of Disney Channel Original Movies, but this was absolute trash! Hilary tries too hard at playing the perky girl who everyone hates, and hopefully makes the audience feel sorry for her. She tries to be the upbeat, positive girl who would actually go up to someone and say "Can I borrow some spit?" Not only is she perky to the extent of being excessively annoying, but all I see her as is a Mary-Sue //(character with no flaws at all making you want to vomit). This is probably OK for the target audience - 6-10 year olds, but anyone older than that will find this the most annoying piece of trash in the world. And if any real military people actually watch this film, they'll probably loose all faith in the movie industry. Remind me... how does playing around with bits of ribbon help the Army in war? Exactly, it doesn't. So please don't waste 101 minutes of your life and watch something as bad as this.

Ha! I bet my one line summary above sounds a bit odd, right? Well, it's true. I know it's a family comedy and that they are supposed to be sappy and controlling, but that's not an excuse for making a dull movie like this. Up-and-coming star Hilary Duff plays a young teenager named Kelly who is recruited to the military (guffaw) and is constantly yelled at by cadet Christy-Carlson Romano, of Disney's hit TV show "Even Stevens." The one thing I have always hated about "Even Stevens" is Romano. She is very, very annoying. As an actress she amounts to the standards of...well...what she is: A Disney-employed actress with no talent. Hilary Duff is a decent actress, and has gotten her big break from Disney; though I must say I'm NOT looking forward to "Agent Cody Banks." All in all, this film is just boring, and (whaddaya know) emotionally controlling and manipulative. A must-miss. 2/5 stars - John Ulmer