This Is Not a Test! . Austin Chronicle . 01-26-98

This Is Not a Test!

DIRECTED BY: Frederic Gadette

REVIEWED: 01-26-98

A sheriff's deputy gets a call on his radio to set up a roadblock on a remote mountain road, and stops several travelers. As news continues to come in on the police radio, they find out that the country is under atomic attack and they are stuck between two likely H-bomb targets, with all possible escape routes choked off by people fleeing the cities. There's a truck driver, a jaded hipster playboy and his girlfriend, a Denver Pyle-type farmer with his luscious granddaughter, and a city wuss (very reminiscent of the bald guy in Night of the Living Dead) with his wife. The cop (who has a face like an Easter Island statue) takes iron-fisted control of the group, feeding the hipster a shotgun butt when he tries to leave. They take shelter in the back of the 18-wheeler (conveniently loaded with canned food, water, and supplies) and wait for the world to end. This Is Not a Test! is mainly talk and exposition, but it advances the plot forward as quickly as the ICBMs on their way to wipe out the characters. The acting ranges from pretty good to plain awful; there are continuity errors aplenty and an obviously shoestring budget, but the seedy production values only add to the aura of doom and desperation that overwhelms this picture. Actually, the budget constraints, confined setting, and limited cast of characters makes it seem more like a filmed play at times. The literate, well-reasoned script has all the characters trying to decide how to live out their last moments on earth while the cop rides ruthless herd over the lot, eventually throttling the city lady's poodle to conserve fresh air inside the trailer, then tossing it aside like a rag doll. Also surprising is the total lack of propagandizing; I don't think the Russians are mentioned by name once. It's a thought-provoking viewing experience that definitely transcends the budget and talent limitations that it comes saddled with, and is way better than most Cold War end-of-the-world dramas. A must for all doomsday completists.

--Jerry Renshaw

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