A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Nothing especially original in this doomsday flick, except it's taut, manages the momentum well, and does a fine job on a limited budget. Seamon Glass (Deliverance) plays a gruff, brawny highway patrolman assigned the unenviable duty of preventing motorists from entering what is likely to become the target of an Atom-bomb attack. When he and the assorted bunch of motorists stopped at his checkpoint discover they are within the prospective radioactive zone, they set-about futile attempts at survival in the cargo hold of a semi-trailer. Predictably, tensions mount as the attack grows more imminent.Low-key, no frills production has plenty of atmosphere highlighted by Glass's no- nonsense portrayal of the harassed cop whose heavy-handedness makes for turbulent relations with those who's welfare he's assigned to protect. There's infidelity, an escaped murderer, the old sage spouting metaphors of wisdom, and while most are just clichés, director Gadette handles the sub-plots with economy, serving only as pauses from the narrative, nothing too deep to distract the attention.The cast is fairly obscure; notwithstanding Glass, Norman Bartold has a prominent role as a whining cuckold husband (credited as Norman Winston for some reason), and Ralph Manza appears briefly late in the film as one of a mob of crazed looters. Quite a decent yarn.

The best thing about this movie was also the best thing about Carnival of Souls. Namely that its lower budget led to hazily filmed, sometimes unclear and murky scenes. In both movies it made the mood creepier, while in the case of This is Not a Test it also gave it something of a documentary feel.One surprising thing about this movie was that it was filmed completely at night, which is an added expense and unusual for such a low budget movie.But to me the most surprising thing was the gratuitous animal cruelty. I'm not referring to the famous strangled puppy scene which took place off camera and was only implied, but to the chicken scene. When the psycho character comes back to discover the truck has left, he takes his anger out on some unfortunate chickens. Besides smashing wooden cages on the ground, releasing REAL chickens, he picks up at least two and smashes them to the ground like an angry child. I've watched the scene several times and they were real chickens. Okay, not earth shattering but an interesting look at something filmmakers will never do again.

"A California deputy sheriff sets up a roadblock on a mountain highway leading to a city. He begins to stop motorists to inform them of some terrible news; a missile containing an atomic bomb is headed towards the city. The motorists and the deputy struggle with deciding on either finding shelter inside the back of a truck, for possible survival, or whether to go to the mountaintop to face the impending doom," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.An interesting lower budget doomsday feature, "This Is Not a Test" suffers through flawed, uninteresting characterizations. Moreover, subtleties and symbolism are too far buried in the mix to matter. There is barely a hint that "good" characters "Peter" and "June" could form an "Adam" and "Eve", should the film's promise be fulfilled. The "Discount World" truck, and the other means of transportation may, or may not, mean anything in particular.The more interesting characters' psychoses are underdeveloped: dictatorial cop Seamon Glass (as Dan Colter) really needed some back-story; and alleged rapist/murderer Ron Starr (as Clint)'s back-story is completely wasted. Probably, Mr. Starr's character was falsely accused; and, the script makes no use of the possibility something interesting is being transported in his suitcase. Don't miss Starr's "chicken truck" meltdown scene, if you watch; he makes "Clint" the best role in the movie.

The film is garbage with a capital G. The entire cast COMBINED has less than a rookie "American Idol" contestant, the dialog would embarrass Ed Wood, the ending is too abrupt, the special effects are anything but, the soundtrack isn't worth the 8-track tape it was apparently recorded on, the storyline is harder to comprehend than a nuclear physics course, and don't even get me started on the direction-- or should I say lack thereof. Why the cast didn't file a class-action suit against the director for wrecking their careers with this cinematic Chernobyl is a mystery for greater minds than ours to ponder...I just know that I didn't like this movie. Compared to films like "The Day After", "Dr. Strangelove", or even "Defcon IV", "This Is Not A Test" is a perfect example of how NOT to handle the topic of nuclear war on the silver screen.