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For Your Eyes Only (1981)

Premise: A ship is sunk with secret spy equipment.  James Bond is tasked with making sure the salvage doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

I'm gonna do this one a little different.  Rather than review this as just another movie, I'm going to rate it specifically on James Bond criteria.

I'll start with the pre-title sequence.  This one is really weird.  Some backstory -- there was a split with one of the Bond books, where more than one studio had the right to make a film, but certain films could use certain characters and others not.  (Think sort of how it was when FOX had the mutant rights to X-Men but Marvel Studios has the rights to Avengers characters, so you got two versions of Quicksilver with different words allowed to be said.)  It was why we essentially got a remake of Thunderball in the non-EON produced Never Say Never Again (1983).  And because of this, the mainline EON films needed to get rid of long-time villain Blofeld.  So, they used the title sequence in For Your Eyes Only to do this, despite it having nothing to do with the larger film.  The sequence involves Blofeld taking over a helicopter via RC and putting Bond through a dangerous ride (with some great stuntwork), until Bond climbs on the outside of the copter, takes it over, scoops up Blofeld (where you never see his face or hear his name) and dumps him in a smokestack, while he begs Bond to spare him, with probably the weirdest line in Bond history with Blofeld promising "I will buy you a delicatessen."  Not my favorite opening, for sure, but this felt like some franchise housekeeping, so I will let it slide.

The gun barrel is standard, no notes -- the intro music is not a banger, but it's fine and works thematically and the title sequence is in-line with what you'd expect for the era.  All good here.

My favorite thing about this film is actually the plot.  It's not "save the world" stakes.  Bond is trying to figure out who is doing what and wants to keep dangerous spy info out of the hands of the Russians, all while dealing with the personal stakes of not getting him or the people around him killed.  The setup of this comes via a ship getting attacked (which feels to me like it was supposed to be the original opening sequence) and then the death of some marine salvagers, who are the parents of our Bond girl.

Roger Moore is too old.  It's just the elephant in the room.  He's 53.  And it's not the stunt or physicality stuff; it's his sex appeal.  He's just not believable as someone that young women would be fawning over on-sight.  His love interest is 23 at filming.  But that's not even the weirdest part....we'll get there.  The Bond girl, in a vacuum, is pretty good -- her motivation is revenge at the death of her parents.  She's capable and has her own wants and doesn't just serve to follow Bond around.  When they keep running into each other, it makes sense because she's hunting the people that Bond is, just for different reasons.  It also makes sense (for the most part) why she has some of the skills she has, as she's following in the interests of her father who was some kind of marine archaeologist, I believe.  For some reason, she specializes in a crossbow, which doesn't really fit and feels like something they chose for the movie, rather than an organic character trait.  Her chemistry with Moore never works for me, since he seems like he should be giving her Werther's Originals from his pocket like a grandpa.

The villain and henchmen are not memorable, but there is a twist and their villain-ness is hidden, so they don't stand out.  Thus, they aren't iconic, but for the purposes of this story, they fit and I'm happy with it.  The henchman is simple muscle, which is fine.  You need Bond to physically tangle with people or to carry out the kills, so since the villain is unassuming, it serves the purpose.

I like the car sequence.  It's a subversion of the classic, but it sets it up and knocks it down very well.  A really cool, stand-out Lotus with skis is introduced.  It calls itself out.  And then, they flip the script and Bond has to drive a jalopy beater.  Fun, different than usual, but it knows what it's doing.

The action in this movie is very competent and extremely varied -- there was the aforementioned car sequence, multiple ski/gun/chase sequences, underwater stuff, a mountain-climbing sequence, a shootout at a dock, and even some weird stuff like a hockey brawl.  It's a bit too-much.  The hockey fight is corny.  The ski stuff is a hat on a hat.  They probably could have taken the best parts and combined the snow areas.  But there's a lot of action stuff and the quality of it is pretty good.

There are ancillary characters worth noting.  Bond has a rogue character show up who you aren't sure is a villain, a frenemy, an ally, or a reluctant partner -- that's very on-brand for the series and makes for a good spy story.  He works well.  The weird one is a second Bond girl, who is a figure skater.  She's played by an actress who is 21, but the character codes as a teenager -- 16-18, training for the Olympics.  She immediately is all over 53-year old Bond.  Had Bond been 30 and traditionally attractive, there is a funny story there about teenage obsession.  But as is, it feels like she's incredibly damaged and needs therapy.  I know it's not the intention of the film, but I actually feel sorry for her like she's sexually damaged.  The movie never acts on her advances, but the entire subplot feels like she's acting out in the most destructive way from previous abuse.

The biggest knock I have for this movie is a lack of identity.  It doesn't really stand out with something iconic.  There's not the signature stunt, the memorable villain, a distinct setting, the banger car.  It's just pretty competent and has a good, well-though out story which goes a long way in being a good movie.  It also made for a satisfying ending.  Bond does something on his own that goes against the mission brief that felt very in-character and each of the subplots feels like it gets a fair resolution.

Overall, I think this is not S-tier, top level Bond, but it's in that 2nd group.  It's not my absolute favorite, but near the top of the Roger Moore films.

I appreciate you going through these. I've watched them all.

I think you should start a tier list and put these into what tiers you feel make sense to you.

This is an example of a community list that i don't really agree with, but with this specific movie, I agree it's in the 3rd tier and not the 2nd.
https://tiermaker.com/categories/tv-and-movies/james-bond-tier-list-8239

There are 10 ish movies off the top of my head that i would rank ahead of this one. For a variety of reasons.
 
This one really doesn't stand out. I agree with you that it isn't bad. But also it isn't memorable. This is in the middle of the mid tier.

This is my tier:
(https://i.imgur.com/lA5bKEK.png)

I think it depends on how many tiers.  So, I was only really working off of a 4 tier list, in my head -- thinking this is probably in the 2nd quarter of films.  I think we're generally similarly minded about this movie, based on how you describe it.

I like these tier lists, but I'm kind of annoyed that they only use the cover art so it's hard to see which it is.

One of my favorites simply because when I was a kid I saw it at the Boca Mall Six inside the old Boca Mall. Saw a lot of movies at that theater. I should make a list of all the movies that a saw there from 80-83.
 

I remember the old Boca mall because I'm older than dirt.  But holy shit, what a reference.