Movie Review

The Unauthorized Saved By The Bell Story

Starring: Sam Kindseth, Dylan Everett, Tiera Skovbye, Alyssa Lynch, Julian Works, Taylor Russell

I knew we were in trouble when I saw the TV-PG rating on the movie. Unauthorized? Really? I can’t imagine that anyone really cared about this film. It doesn’t really destroy anyones images, except perhaps that of Dustin Diamond, who wrote the book on which the movie is based. I think he was searching for empathy, but I’m not sure I feel sorry for him. This story was just totally unnecessary.

For anyone who really loved Saved By The Bell, you’ll notice that the movie only focuses on the core six. When Leah Remini joins the cast, we don’t even see the actress who plays her, nor did we really see the original kids from Good Morning Miss Bliss. The movie stops before The College Years, and doesn’t even mention Saved By The Bell: The New Class. It’s a shame, because Remini did 7 episodes of Bell, which is more than Tori Spelling, whose likeness did get about 2 seconds of screentime. Some kid named Eric, who hangs on to Dustin for most of the movie gets more screentime than people who Saved By The Bell fans would have rather seen.

No mention of all the future stars, like Scott Wolf, who passed through Bayside High. Hawaiian Style gets one scene on the beach. The cast doesn’t look like the actors they’re portraying. And this is a very shallow film that never scratches the surface of the real problems the cast faced. Aside from Dustin, the biggest thing Mark-Paul had to worry about apparently was that he couldn’t buy a car at 16, and he couldn’t express his love for Lark. Mario had no real problems, apparently, but is painted as a little bit of a douchebag. Elizabeth Berkley is just shown as someone who wants to be taken seriously as an actress, and Tiffani has very little character development. I suppose she’s just a pretty girl who wants a career? That’s not really a character, but that’s all they give her.

I guess if Dustin Diamond spent his entire time locked in his room, separated from the cast, he had no idea what was going on with the other five, let alone any of the recurring cast added occasionally. I was hoping I’d see some major revelations, but the only thing I learned was that Elizabeth and Tiffani quit the show after half of the final season was shot, and they brought in Leah to replace them, and then mixed up the episodes so people wouldn’t notice they were missing, and finished by bringing them back for graduation. Also, if it weren’t for the kids, Saved By The Bell would have never tackled serious issues.

The acting isn’t awful, and there’s actually a little bit of promise. Most of the cast I’m pretty sure we’ll never see again, but if I could vote one person through to a successful career, I’d vote Tiera Skovbye through to at least a series regular gig on an ABC Family show. She’s a decent actress, and seemed most comfortable in her role.

I just wish we had gotten more “unauthorized”. At least something TV-14. This was so blah. There was nothing sensational, nothing shocking, and nothing really to talk about. It was a cash grab hoping to bring people in for some nostalgia, but it does the nostalgia so poorly that people can’t even enjoy that.

I’m disappointed. You should be too. Judging from the tweets, everyone is disappointed. I can’t really be mad at Dustin Diamond for “exploiting” his cast mates, because there’s nothing dangerous here. None of his Bayside pals reputations could possibly be tarnished by anything that happens in this film.

I don’t normally do this… but some really perfect tweets about this film:

FINAL GRADE: D+

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