The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story

2014
4.7| 1h28m| PG| en
Details

The Unauthorized Saved by the Bell Story delves into the experiences of six unknown young actors placed into the Hollywood spotlight, exposing the challenges of growing up under public scrutiny.

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

Stream on any device, 30-day free trial Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

Spoonixel Amateur movie with Big budget
Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
Theodosius The movie was interesting enough, but just because it was Dustin Diamond's version, it makes it difficult for someone to watch (and believe) it without any trace of prejudice.But the worst thing is that the whole plot is weird. All of a sudden Diamond is the center of the universe and the other 5 cast members revolve around him. Diamond is the josher but at the same time the mature one, the rest just join him on the set. We didn't see much about their lives out there, their thoughts and their problems.The young actors were very good in their roles. Unfortunately, the movie didn't meet my expectations, since in this kind of movies I need to see a collection of verified information from different people who were involved and an equitably shared time to the protagonists.
mooredylan75 To start this off this review, I wish I could give this movie a zero. This is not going to be a slam of Mr. Dustin Diamond, simply a review of what Lifetime put on the screen last night. There are many things that I find wrong with this movie, I just don't know where to start. I really wanted to enjoy this one because like all who watched this movie, they grew up watching Saved By the Bell. And who doesn't like to know what goes on behind closed doors? But, my interest dimmed after finding out two major components: It's based on Dustin's falsified memoir and two it has "Unauthorized" in the title. I get it, I didn't have to watch it and there were a million things I could have been doing. But, I didn't. Firstly, the cast was put together poorly. The only ones that I thought matched their counterparts were: Ken Tremblett (played Dennis Haskins), Tiera Skovbye (Elizabeth Berkley, due to her scene when she was on the caffeine pills.), and Taylor Russell (Lark Voorhies). The rest I could care less about, especially Sam Kindseth, I didn't feel that Screech charm, nor did I expect it, I just wanted a glimpse. I felt more anger towards Dustin Diamond as a whole after the movie. I don't know if he was that goofy on set or just pushed himself out of the group, even to this day he doesn't associate himself with them. With hearing about positive things from the other cast members. I am hoping they didn't treat him with disrespect or being a complete bully. I understand that no one wants to be the outcast, especially how the others were adored by millions. But, with that said, just like Jaleel White with his Steve Urkel character he embraced the role. He rode it out and capitalized on his fame, where Dustin didn't. Lifetime took a movie that was about an hour into a 2 hour slotted TV film, the editing was very poorly done. It just felt like it was going from one thought to another without changing the year. Plus what annoyed me were the conversations that Dustin was not in. For example, when Tiffany and Mark were in France, how does anyone know what happened? I get that there were multiple interviews with people, but it was an unnecessary scene. Also with the reenactments with the scenes on the show, were not accurate and most didn't even occur. It didn't help that they tried to cover five years that quickly. I mean for me personally, I wanted to hear about the College Years and the New Class more and how his life altered from those two shows. I know that his narration touched briefly on the College Years, but it felt like road kill you pass by. There was a lot of content that Dustin and Lifetime overlooked. I can tell that this movie was made in a few months, due to the choppy cuts and the actors' interactions with each other. It didn't feel real; it felt like the Days of Our Lives. I would have wanted flashbacks and real memorabilia from the show. I felt like I wasn't watching behind the scenes of Saved by the Bell; Lifetime and Dustin just wanted to tell the viewers a crappy bedtime story. If you enjoyed it, that's great and I hope you don't take my opinion into account. I wish that this is comprehendible for everyone and I would love to hear what everyone has to say. Thank you!
kandit1 This unauthorized version is told from Dustin Diamond's recollection of events. Since this story is about a group of six teenagers and what went on behind the scenes of the TV show, one man's recollection of events certainly skews history and hence the unauthorized title.To be fair, Dustin's version of events in the movie version doesn't really target anyone negatively other than the fact that, as the youngest cast member, he felt as though he was an outsider. This lead to awkward and uncomfortable situations with other cast members but we get the impression that on the whole the cast were good friends off the set as well.Given time limits, many things were skipped which I would have liked to see as someone who followed the show during it's original run. 'Good Morning, Miss Bliss' had Hayley Mills, T.K. Carter and Joan Ryan as teachers along with Heather Hopper and Max Battimo as students. All these actors were not covered in the movie nor why they were excluded when 'Saved By The Bell' carried on with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Dustin Diamond, Lark Voorhies and Dennis Haskins all continuing their roles.Diamond's version for cancellation of 'Saved By The Bell: The College Years' differs substantially from mine. I remember wanting to watch it to continue watching these characters and their exploits taken to a new level in college but the show was so atrociously bad that even I didn't watch it to the end of it's run. Despite Diamond's view that this was the end, it was not. He forgot to mention the 1994 TV movie 'Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas' as well as Dustin Diamond reuniting with Dennis Haskins in 'Saved by the Bell: The New Class' which had more seasons and episodes than the original.On the whole, this movie portrays Diamond as pretty clean-cut and a victim of blackmail from a guy that introduced him to alcohol and drugs but what would you expect from a story being told only from his viewpoint? It would be nice one day if we got another version or even had someone collectively put together all the major actor's recollections and make a more thorough and balanced review of events on film.
sara2520 From seeing the previews, i thought the movie was going to be a tell all that was going to destroy my childhood memories of one of my favorite shows, and the cast looked so fake. I was so wrong. The characters were well cast and did an excellent job portraying their characters especially since the casting director from the original shoe came back to cast the characters for this movie. The movie was a homage to the cast and it made me smile, especially since I grew up watching the series as a kid. It's like all the behind the scenes things you heard over the years like Lisa and Mark dating and putting it on screen. If you like the clean image of the show, then you are going to like this movie. I think the original cast will enjoy it too. Great movie, well cast, nice pacing, and it respected the cast instead of trying to tarnish their public images like we were led to believe.