Michael_Elliott 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.

insomniac_rod I am aware it is Dustin's version; however, it misses the point on describing the real problems and frictions between the cast. They barely display the character's personalities, hobbies, and their life outside the set, which would be helpful to understand some issues. Instead, the script focuses on describing things we already knew. I know, it is Dustin's story, but a little more objectivity wouldn't hurt. The acting is surprisingly good, specially the young man that plays Dustin. The rest of the cast does perfectly their job although it seems they haven't seen the original Saved by the Bell series. I would definitely recommend this one for fans of the series, like myself. I grew watching this series and became part of my life, so, getting extra information after 22 years was a good nostalgic touch, although I expected to see more of the "private" details.

Robert W. I don't even know where to begin with this film. I don't even know why they bothered making it. Lifetime is the home of bad, bad TV movies but this one takes the cake of stuff I've seen lately. I admit I was actually excited about this. I am an adult who grew up absolutely LOVING Saved By The Bell. Kelly was the love of my young life, Zack was my idol, Screech was my best friend...you get the drift. I thought initially it was very smart of Lifetime to explore this show and what it legitimately did for Television. I understand there were some very dramatic things that happened behind the scenes so this could have been very interesting. It is a colossal horrible mess. The casting is the only thing they didn't screw up because it was okay (most will disagree with me) but the story they tell is ridiculous. Because it is Unauthorized they make up sets that look nothing like the actual ones, stories and scripts that never happened and events that were very unlikely. I would have rather watched a documentary about the making of the show then watch them fake their way through this crap. Despite being so terrible I sat there and watched it and maybe because I wanted it to be so good and maybe because I loved Saved By The Bell so much...somehow I found some semblance of redemption in it and was okay with wasting an hour and a half on it.Now don't get me wrong when I said the casting was okay. The casting is JUST okay. The kids were decent, they looked the part and I think if they had a script that was even okay that they too would have done alright. This script could have been written by monkeys on typewriters. Sam Kindseth shows some talent and some genuine promise as Dustin Diamond/Screech. He actually does his best to show some emotion. I actually thought Dylan Everett did a decent job as Mark-Paul Gosselaar. Much like Kindseth, he tried his best given the material. He almost seemed like he had enough chemistry to carry the movie much like Gosselaar carried Saved By The Bell. Julian Works tried very hard as Mario Lopez but wasn't very well cast. Still he was okay and the chemistry with him and the other cast members were decent. Tiera Skovbye, Alyssa Lynch and Taylor Russell were okay but very underused and were really only there to fulfil the purpose of being those characters and get very little depth. Same could be said for Ken Tremblett who seemed to really nail the Dennis Haskins role in the two or three scenes they actually showed him.In order for this film to work, they needed a script that truly captured what this show meant to pre-teens and to Television in general. They also needed a cast that had the sort of chemistry that the actual cast had twenty plus years ago. This film had neither of those things. This was slapped together to make a couple of books and move on. Director Jason Lapeyre has virtually no experience behind the camera and Ron McGee, who has written a lot of stuff (most of it looks like garbage) should stop writing. I blame him for the majority of why this didn't work at all. Why they would put the point of view to Dustin Diamond's character is beyond me and they never really touch on any of the important moments in the shows history. Maybe the show doesn't need a behind the scenes film but I still think it could have been done right. It wasn't. Its bad. Unless you're a true die hard fan like me, you won't find much reason to watch this. And if you do...be warned. 4.5/10

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.