July 4 (Bloomberg) -- ``Buy the ticket, take the ride'' was one of Hunter Thompson's pet sayings.

If you buy a ticket to Alex Gibney's documentary, ``Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson,'' you'll be taken on a wild, drug-fueled, gun-toting ride that made the late Rolling Stone writer the most notorious journalist of his generation.

Thompson, whose subjects ranged from Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter to the Hell's Angels and the Super Bowl, was no objective observer of his times. He planted himself squarely in the middle of his stories, challenging the traditional notion that journalists should keep their personalities and opinions to themselves.

His ``gonzo'' approach turned out to be a mixed blessing. Though it made him a 1970s icon worshipped by packed crowds on college campuses, it eventually transformed him into a cartoonish character -- he was the inspiration for Doonesbury's Uncle Duke -- better known for his hedonistic lifestyle than his freewheeling writing.

``The myth has taken over,'' Thompson said in an interview shown in the documentary. ``I find myself an appendage. I'm no longer necessary. I'm in the way. It would be much better if I died. Then people could take the myth and make films.''

Which, of course, is exactly what happened.

Thompson lived to see Bill Murray and Johnny Depp play him in two movies, ``Where the Buffalo Roam'' and ``Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.'' Now comes the second major documentary on Thompson since he committed suicide in 2005 at his Colorado ranch. (His ashes were later shot from a cannon atop a 150-foot tower.)

McGovern, Buffett

Gibney, who won an Oscar this year for his documentary ``Taxi to the Dark Side,'' mines a huge treasure trove of home movies, photographs, archival footage and fresh interviews with Thompson friends such as George McGovern, Jimmy Buffett, Tom Wolfe and Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner. (There's also a funny interview with former Nixon aide Pat Buchanan, who apparently liked Thompson despite his anti-Nixon rantings.)

Though the film doesn't ignore Thompson's dark side -- he had a violent streak and cheated on his first wife -- it sometimes succumbs to hero worship, especially in Depp's melodramatic readings of Thompson's work. Still, it's a ride well worth taking.

``Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson,'' from Magnolia Pictures, opens today across the U.S. Rating: **1/2

`The Wackness'

Ben Kingsley, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Gandhi, has favored less majestic roles in recent years: an alcoholic hit man, a cross-eyed guru and a vampire king, to name a few.

You can now add to that list the suicidal, marijuana-smoking psychiatrist he plays in ``The Wackness,'' a bittersweet movie about what it was like to be young and in love on the streets of New York in the summer of 1994.

Jonathan Levine's semi-autobiographical story stars Josh Peck as a recent high-school graduate who peddles pot from an ice-cream cart, gets infatuated with rap and has his heart broken by his shrink's precocious stepdaughter (Oliva Thirlby, from ``Juno'') -- all while dealing with his family's looming eviction from their apartment.

With its references to Rudy Giuliani, Biggie Smalls and Kurt Cobain, and dialogue loaded with slang of the era, ``The Wackness'' is a virtual time capsule. While that gives the film a distinct period feel, it sometimes distracts from the more timeless elements of the story.

Peck and Thirlby are well-suited as the young lovers, Mary- Kate Olsen is amusing as a pigtailed hippie, and Kingsley rollicks as the shrink who accepts payments in pot.

``The Wackness,'' from Sony Pictures Classics, is playing in New York and Los Angeles. Rating: **1/2

What the Stars Mean:

****          Excellent
***           Good
**            Average
*             Poor
(No stars)    Worthless

(Rick Warner is the movie critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

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Last Updated: July 4, 2008 01:38 EDT