Fantasyland, the book, is by far one of the best books I have ever read about fantasy sports. It captures the spirit, the history, and the fun of fantasy baseball. Fantasyland the movie showcases the obsessiveness of one player that cannot help but make you cringe. The movie follows an average guy Jed Latkin as he competes in the 2008 AL Tout Wars and will stop at almost nothing to make his fantasy baseball team a better team.

Latkin has an enthuasism for fantasy baseball that may just be unmatched. While a certain amount of this movie is Latkin being over the top for the camera (at least, I hope it is), Latkin’s enthusism borders on a very truly unhealthy obsession for fantasy baseball. If he actually did drive over 7 hours to Roanoke, Virginia just to negotiate a trade with a surprised Ron Shandler, or actually nearly miss the birth of his children negotiating a trade, that’s just a bit creepy. One of the things that made Walker’s original story so captivating is that he definitely did push the limits of reason of what you could do to win a fantasy baseball league, but it never seemed that Walker had his priorities mismatched or lacked a sense of common courtesy.

The movie does have some bright spots that make it tolerable. The narrative interludes with Fantasyland author Sam Walker act as the voice of reason, bringing to life the great storytelling of Fantasyland, if only for a moment. The side interviews on anecdotes do give a little bit of character to the movie.

I really wanted this to be a good review of a movie that I was very excited to see. Unfortunately, this is not it. Although, one possible use for this version of Fantasyland is to have your significant other watch the movie just so you can say to her, “be thankful I’m not that guy.”

If you are interested in seeing what I am talking about, you can watch Fantasyland the movie online.