His sixth outing as James Bond, Roger Moore began to show his age and his crediability as 007 slip. Moore was reluctant yet again to return as his contract was up following FYEO. Tired of the role, actors Sam Neil and James Brolin were seriously considered as his replacement, Brolin even got a screen test, but with Connery's Never Say Never Again approaching in direct competition, 007 as a yank, didn't make much sense. After another hefty pay raise, (roughly $6 million) Roger Moore eventually returned. Although peppered with some impressive aerobatics, particularly the min-jet in the pre-credit sequence, the film becomes just a loose-knit, display of extravagant stunts and bouts of violent shoot outs. With no strong villain to latch onto, the film becomes an exercise in futility. A needlessly convoluted plot has a mad Soviet Officer (Steven Berko) plotting with a greedy felon, Kamal Khan (Louis Jourdan) to detonate a nuclear bomb on an American army base in Europe in hopes of starting World War III for reasons not made very clear. Maude Adams as the titular character is awful (lousy again as she was in "The Man with the Golden Gun") and her storyline does not fit in with the cold war plotting and scheming, her romance with Bond is the film’s dullest moments. Sir Roger should have followed his instincts and quit while he was still ahead as he gives his last credible performance; he’s a tough bastard at times, especially his face off with Khan during the card game and surprisingly vulnerable as his reaction to the death of 009 reveals. The film is occasionally entertaining, due largely to its title and all those in the media trying to promote the film, but ultimately its too flaccid and confusing to be considered good. The critics were not kind to Bond this time out, citing Moore's age and listless screenplay as the problems, nevertheless, the film grossed more at the box-office than "For Your Eyes Only."
Although to be redundant, John Barry’s score and the film’s title tune, “All Time High”, by Rita Coolidge are keepers.