American Star

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.

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

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.

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.

There's been a lot of criticism for this TV movie on review sites. It is corny, it is sugary and it does miss some of the seedier parts of Dustin Diamond's book.

I read Dustin Diamond's book "Behind The Bell" on which this TV Movie is based several years before this film was even made. It was incredibly difficult to obtain a physical copy so I bought the eBook instead. The book was controversial at the time and arguably libellous in places. The story goes Dustin Diamond wanted to publish a "tell all" book about the Saved By The Bell cast. The book was said to be co-written with the aid of a ghostwriter and also parts were made-up or exaggerated by him.

With this being PG rated it totally glosses over the seedier aspects of the book like: sex amongst cast members, like some of the drug taking, like the dressing room orgies and Dustin's infamous trips to Disney World. If you believe the book. The film is basically a nostalgia piece and fairly flattering to the cast. I can't imagine them being that offended by this film unlike the book. The film takes place in 1989 after "Good Morning, Miss Bliss" gets cancelled and part of the cast are reunited for the Saved by the Bell pilot. The film missed out Lark Voorhees was in this series implying Saved by the Bell was her big break. Dustin Diamond was the youngest cast member, but it also ignored that he was a child actor with substantial acting experience compared to most of the cast.

Other omissions include Dennis Haskins (Mr Belding) not really featuring despite being a major cast member, I think Dustin said Corey Feldman used to visit the set which was missing, the two TV specials: Hawaiian Style and Wedding in Las Vegas were not mentioned and neither was long-running, The New Class which ran for 7 years. I would have liked to have heard more about Peter Engel who was considered a sort-of surrogate father to some of the cast and also that apart from "Hang Time" he never managed to have another big hit in TV (so far).

So it is corny fun much like Saved By The Bell itself and there are several glaring omissions, probably due to libel or inaccuracy. This means it sort of feels shallow. I was a big fan of SBTB and like a lot of people of my age it was a part of my childhood. I do not think this is a great film. The cast do their best with a limited script and all look the part. At 85 minutes it is also really skinny in terms of content, given it is telling 3+ years in that time. The soundtrack is also pretty decent. See it for the nostalgia rather than the drama.