American Star

Just watched this tonight. Don't understand why its rating is so low, can only assume it's because people have a problem with it being from Screech's perspective or maybe didn't like that the actors were not exactly like their characters or didn't concentrate more on what people expected to see... Whatever the reason, I think it's unjust as this is actually a fairly good film. I'd really rate it a 7, but am giving it an 8 here to help bump it up a bit to a more realistic rating: 4.6 is totally unjustified. The acting and pace are good, and honestly I thought it was a bit too short, would have liked them to go into 'The College Years' but guess they didn't have time. I grew up watching Saved By The Bell so was very interested to watch this. I know it did not depict every single thing accurately and omitted a fair bit, but I really enjoyed it anyway and was not bored at any point, it left me wanting more.

I think it would be better to be familiar with Saved By The Bell before watching as there isn't time to explain very much about the TV show itself, though you could probably still get away with not knowing much about it, and still enjoy it. Am glad I watched it and would happily watch again. Maybe my familiarity with the characters (i.e. the real-life actors from Saved By The Bell) is biasing my view, but I'd guess most people who go to watch this film will have the same background anyway.

First of all, it's a Lifetime movie. They're not exactly known for creating cinematic masterpieces. Secondly, it's based on the largely untrue "memoirs" of Dustin Diamond. Thirdly, (and I'm a fan of it anyway), the original show was corny and shallow. If you watch this movie, go into it with reasonable expectations.

As far as the production value and writing, it's on the lower end of the Lifetime movie spectrum. My biggest problem is that, with the exception of Dustin Diamond, they portrayed the actors as exact replicas of the characters they played on SBTB. Dennis Haskins greets everyone with a corny "Belding" joke. Mario Lopez is the loveable but overly macho man. Elizabeth Berkley is the most intelligent, issues-driven member of the cast. Tiffani-Amber is the sweet, nieve one. The point is made that Dustin Diamond was not a total geek, like Screech, so it should be assumed that the other actors weren't exactly like their characters, either. All of them played stereotypes, so it's fair to say none of them fully fit into their stereotype IRL, either.

Given that glaring flaw, the casting is actually decent. The actors apparently only had the original series to draw upon for for inspiration, and they nailed that. If they'd been asked to just replicate an episode of SBTB, I think they would have been really well cast. The actor who played Mario Lopez (playing Slater), in particular, picked up Slater's attitude and mannerisms. As far as portraying the ACTORS, the young actors who played Dustin Diamond and Mark-Paul Gosselar are believable.

The movie feeds into the nostalgia of fans of SBTB. The original material has been debunked by the entire cast, so it's not a "true story." It's a low-budget Lifetime movie. If you go into it, with that in mind, it's a fun watch if you're really bored.

The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story (2014)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

This "unauthorized" telling of the events from the hit television show Saved By the Bell is based on the book that was written by Dustin Diamond (Screech) and centers on his unhappy time filming the show.

THE UNAUTHORIZED SAVED BY THE BELL STORY is a rather strange film on a number of levels. If you grew up watching the show like I did then you know it was rather corny and campy and those two words are how I'd describe this television movie. I say that because the movie really doesn't get into the darker elements of the story and it's rather silly when you think that some of the real-life people were upset about the movie. In all honesty, this is a pretty tame look at the events that were going on behind-the-scenes.

With that being said, since the movie was made Diamond has came out and said that a lot of the book was made up so perhaps that's why certain elements didn't make it into the film. For the most part this was a decent made-for-television film that will have some appeal to fans of the show. We learn that Diamond was basically unhappy while making the show because he wasn't treated the same way as other cast members and his "dork" character wasn't able to get ladies. What this movie is basically saying is that pretty people have it easier than ugly ones.

As far as the casting goes, the producers went to great trouble to make sure their young cast looked like the people they were playing. Performances were okay but certainly nothing special. I doubt the producers were looking for Oscar-winning performances but instead people who could at least make the viewers feel you were watching the real characters. The story isn't the strongest thing that I've seen but then again this is a TV movie for Lifetime.

On the whole, there's really nothing special or great about this film but it should appeal to fans who want to relive some of the campy moments from the show.

I am a huge Saved By The Bell fan and I went into this knowing it was a Unauthorized "movie." I really tried to like or enjoy this but I just could not. The movie was very under acted and zero SBTB feel. I do not believe the characters spent enough time trying to study the part. I was mildly embarrassed for the movie most of the time. It was way to rushed and not very well thought out. I felt they just wanted to get this movie out and in our face. I wish more time was spent putting the timeline together. The characters needed to really understand what this show meant to a lot of us in this time period.

Okay, so I'm in no way surprised that a Lifetime movie could be this terrible but couldn't they have found another load of nonsense to use as a foundation? Oh, boohoo, a kid celebrity had a bad experience while becoming rich and then lost it all. Where's my kleenex? Lol