Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style

I'm currently showing my kids Saved by the Bell, and we finally arrived at Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style. One of the most striking differences between this made-for-TV movie and the regular TV series is the lack of studio audience sound effects. The jokes all land a little flatter without the laugh track cushion. Yes, the plot of this movie is ridiculous, but no more so than most of the regular episodes. And the cast seems to be having a good time vacationing in Oahu while doing some occasional filming. Saved by the Bell: Hawaiian Style is not a great movie, but it's a good enough extended episode.

Saved By The Bell: Hawaiian Style is a great Saved By The Bell special. Zach, Slater, Screech, Kelly, Jessie and Lisa are obviously all in Hawaii here, up to there usual adventures. The gang are all staying at Kelly's grandpas little hotel for the summer. All they want to do obviously is have fun, but things don't go according to plan, when they realise that Mr. Belding, there high-school principle is there and not only that, but they've decided to help Kelly's grandpa in making his hotel more popular as his rival Mr. Worthington plans to take over the hotel and make it into an apartment complex. It wouldn't be Saved By The Bell, without romances and in Hawaii, Zach meets the love of his life, Andrea who has a daughter and Kelly meets a nice guy, who ends up turning out to be not as nice as she thought he was, as he's helping Mr. Worthington to close down her grandpas hotel. Along with this, Screech gets kidnapped by a Pupuku group, who think Screech is there leader. It's going to be an interesting summer for all of them.

Saved By The Bell: Hawiian Style features the usual cast of, Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Mario López, Dustin Diamond, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Elizabeth Berkley, Lark Voorhies and Dennis Haskins. With the addition of the brilliant Rena Sofer here. Everyone here gives great performances.

Saved By The Bell: Hawiian Style is like any of the Saved By The Bell Shows/Special. It's really good and if you're of a fan of Saved By The Bell, then you're bound to enjoy this.

This movie was kinda sweet. I enjoyed this movie because I am a Saved by the Bell fan, but...I've never seen so many stereotypes of Hawaii in my life. Besides changing the geography of the island and making locals seem like dorks, there were hardly any locals in the movie. Majority of the cast were white and I did not see a hint of real Hawaiian culture. It was just cheesy.

Besides the cheese though, I did like the antics of the gang. Their adventures were quite entertaining. This is a good movie if you just want mindless fun and do not actually expect to see or learn anything about Hawaii.

This movie is clearly the best movie in the history of the world. If I had to name my top 10 movies in the history of the world, it would be:

1. Saved By The Bell: Hawaiian Style 2. Saved By The Bell: The Original 3. Saved By The Bell: Late to Class 4. Saved By The Bell: Knocked Out of the Ring and Landed on my Head 5. Saved By The Bell: The Replacement Bell for the One that Broke 6. Saved By The Bell: Philadelphia Style 7. Saved By The Bell: Screetch Attacks 8. Saved By The Bell: Zach Attacks 9. Saved By The Bell: Screetch Runs into the Bell 10. Saved By The Bell: When Screetch is so Drunk, He has to go to Taco Bell to Cure His Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis Disease.

And if you had to throw in a #11, it would be The Godfater.

(Plot) Kelly's grandpa invites the gang to come stay at his hotel in Hawaii. They have a wild time in store for themselves, without Belding or anything else that resembles school. Unfortunately for them, Mr. Belding happens to be there, and they have to deal with an evil capitalist that wants to take over to build a new apartment complex.

I'm a huge Saved by the Bell fan. I own everything to do with SBTB, except for the "New Class" I even own this one, but I can't lie. This is really awful stuff. My main problem with this one is there is no passion behind it. Saved by The Bell wasn't rocket science, but they were extremely fun, and had good messages behind them. This one tries to go for the heavy message, but it just comes across as very awkward and silly. All the fun is really sapped out of this one. Is it just me? Or does Mark-Paul Gosselaar look suspiciously big here? I'm a big fan of Mark's, but it made me raise my eyebrows a bit. It just feels otiose for the most part, and lacks the entertainment something with SBTB should. The subplot between Zack & Andrea (Rena Sofer) and her kid attempts to be moving, but I garnered zero emotion out of it. Even looking at Tiffani Thiessen in a bikini gets old.

Final Thoughts: Watch it once if you're a die hard SBTB fan like I am, and then forget it even exists!

3.6/10