Saved by the Bell: Wedding in Las Vegas (1994) / Comedy-Romance

MPAA Rated: Not rated, but suitable for all audiences
Running Time: 93 min.

Cast: Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Mario Lopez, Dustin Diamond, Lark Voorhies, Liz Vassey, Mark DeCarlo, Bob Golub, Richard Schiff, Gilbert Gottfried
Director: Jeffrey Melman
Screenplay: Mark Fink
Review published August 1, 2002

I'm not sure why I would bother reviewing such a limited appeal made-for-TV movie like this, because if you love the television show, you'll watch it and if you don't, or have never heard of "Saved by the Bell", you won't.  It would cap off what fans of the series wanted to see, ending it in populist fashion with the wedding of Zack (Gosselaar, Specimen) and Kelly (Thiessen, Love Stinks), who seemed destined to be together since the show's inception.

Although billed as a wedding movie, it's only in the last few minutes that the wedding takes place.  Up until then, it's a road trip flick, with the guys (Zack, Screech (Diamond, Dickie Roberts) and Slater (Lopez, Outta Time) and girls (Lisa (Voorhies, How High) and Kelly) in separate vehicles, suffering calamity at every turn, doing the best they can to get to Vegas to get hitched. 

Wedding in Las Vegas has most of the main players from the television series, with Jessie (Elizabeth Berkley, Roger Dodger) and principal Belding (Dennis Haskins, A Million Ways to Die in the West) making their brief appearance at the end of the film.  It's strictly for those who like the characters on the show more than they liked the show itself, as this feature-length episode is very different in tone, without a laugh track or much of the sillier high school type antics to go along with it.

It's typical television fare, so it seems futile to knock it, but I do have to point out that this sports one of the worst soundtracks you might find, making you long for the cheesy music they used on the television show.  The acting, especially by the thugs they end up getting tangled with, is sub-par at best.  I don't even need to tell you how unfunny Gilbert Gottfried (Beverly Hills Cop II) is in this, since he has been consistent in his awful grating throughout his career.

Wedding in Las Vegas is strictly for the biggest fans of the television show, and although it's somewhat superfluous in terms of the series, if you, for whatever deluded reasons you have, need closure to the romance between Zack and Kelly, now you have it.  Just know that it's a bad movie for a goofy show that developed a fervent following among the youth, with just the wafer-thin depth and silly contrivances you've come to expect from the "dumb fun" series.  

Qwipster's rating:

©2003 Vince Leo