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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.
 

The Living Daylights (1987)

Premise: Bond is tasked with extracting a Russian defector under threat of assassination, but all is not as it seems.

Bond films don't exist in a vacuum.  When a new Bond actor is cast, their first film often serves as a correction and shift from the previous direction.  The previous Bond film was A View to a Kill, which was quite over the top and Roger Moore's Bond was old as shit and super quippy.  As I recall, though it's not super fresh on my mind, Moore couldn't really carry out the physicality of the character anymore.

The Living Daylights goes much more serious in tone and Bond himself is age-appropriate, charming without being a creepy pervert, and he's got the physicality to pull off stunt work believably.  Also, the way that the movies have to introduce a new Bond to the audience is kind of meta.  And this opening sequence is fantastic, both in concept and execution.  We see a very cool HALO jump on a training mission featuring several 00 agents.  Then, the training is infiltrated and the agents start getting killed for real -- so we are introduced to several fake Bonds before the real one, which also feels like a reference to films like You Only Live Twice or From Russia With Love, where you see Bond die but there's a twist to the circumstances.  The reveal of Dalton's face when he realizes "oh shit, this is real -- and by the way, I'm the new James Bond" is one of the iconic shots of the series.  The way that it goes into the credits with a cheeky Bond line and throwback to an old Connery joke is perfect.

On Timothy Dalton -- I think he's a great Bond, full stop.  I don't think he was appreciated in his time.  I think that there are some bad boomer takes like "Connery is the only Bond".  Nope.  Dalton is great.  He does it all -- has the look, the charm, the action sensibility and the sophistication.  ...just great, on balance.  Also, having the benefit of hindsight, where you can see all these films way after they've been out and you're not having to directly compare him to the Bond of your childhood, it's clear that he's the real deal.  I think had he done a larger film run than just 2 flicks, that he's be a general public favorite.

Dalton has a pretty good gunbarrel stance and I think that this intro song is not only a good song by A-Ha, but of its time.  One of the things that I like about Bond movies is when they capture their era.  That means that I will give points for things that I don't like, if it's what was popular or relevant for the time.  I think it's part of the charm.  This song is very 80s.  It shouldn't matter, but I don't like the title of the film.  It's not tied to anything going on and it's just a throwaway line that serves to "say the title of a movie in a movie" like the Peter Griffin quip.

I like this plot, but it is very spy-heavy.  I understand it, but it's not as simple as "stop the nuke from blowing up the world".  It's about a Cold War defection, but also about arms dealers, but also about the drug trade but also -- there's a bomb gonna go off.  It's a little of everything.  I am fine with it, but you either have to pay attention to it or just let it go.  It's in a constant flux of who the good guys and bad guys are.

Kira, our Bond girl -- is she innocent, is she a villain, is she a patsy?  Is Bond into her or using her?  I got a little bit of romantic whiplash and I generally don't love it when a Bond girl is romantically tied to someone else and also to Bond.  It makes things a little unclear and ramping up the relationship believably can be complicated.  But overall, she's pretty good.  She's artsy and not out there running and gunning on her own, so she is a bit of a damsel in distress, save for a moment or two.

I think that the humor in this film is a good correction.  The third act does rattle off a few dad-joke one-liners, but prior to that final sequence, the humor is actually quite restrained and comes from editorial choices and framing, rather than puns.  There's a scene where Bond is adamant that he's not taking Kira back to get her cello because it's too dangerous and he flat out refuses and then it hard cuts to her loading this giant cello in the car with him all dejected.  Funny, but also used as juxtaposition against the drama.  I think the later movies do this really well too, but it's a big departure from Moore.

The villains are pretty standard Bond villains but like my last review, they don't really stand out as iconic with a takeover plan and a facial scar or whatever.  The henchman is completely unmemorable but acts as muscle.  Just like the last film, the villains are not revealed right away, so you need competent henchmen to carry out the kills, early on.

The action is all good, but most of it isn't memorable.  I think there's one particular stunt in the finale with a car and a crashing jet that is pretty cool -- I have nothing bad to say, but there's not the one scene that you can point to as the standout.  I suppose it's the car thing at the end, but there's no "running across alligators" or "car barrel roll".  Oh -- as I'm thinking about it, there's a scene of a fight and dangling off of a plane.  So yeah...that was cool.

As for the signature car, it's kind of the same praise/criticism.  He drives an updated Aston Martin.  It's all decked out with gadgets -- very cool, very competent and very Bond.  I love the original DB5.  I also love the Moore Lotus.  And I would've loved to have Dalton have his own signature thing.  This feels like a modern version of the Connery car and that's OK.

Lastly, Bond basically fights alongside the Taliban at the end, which is weird by today's geopolitical standards.

All in all, this is right near the top of the 2nd class, I'd say.  It's a really good bridge between Moore and the modern day.

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.

We get it.  You hate President Trump and will piss on him any chance you get.   If President Trump said it was wrong to piss yourself, you, Hoodie, and every other Democrat would be walking around with wet pants.

This has been refuted multiple times.  I am not going to list the small number of thing that Trump did that I supported every time you make this ignorant comment. 

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:

^ This just isn't a true narrative.

I don't reverse engineer my feelings about Trump.  He does things that I find stupid and offensive and harmful.  I wouldn't like it if a Democrat was doing those things and I have no loyalty to people with a D next to their name if they're assaulting the things I care about.  I don't simply hate things because Trump supports them, either.  I have been a reasonable person on this website with reasonably consistent and logical views for 20 years.

He is a unique threat to our democracy and he aims to create news by doing intentionally bombastic things, in order to cover up his other misdeeds.

[and then immediately stop talking about them after the election is over]

The idea that it's a total coincidence that Republicans only start talking about migrant caravans in fall of election years and then immediately stop talking about them after the election is over is not a credible claim.

This isn't "just news," it's propaganda.

We get it.  You hate President Trump and will piss on him any chance you get.   If President Trump said it was wrong to piss yourself, you, Hoodie, and every other Democrat would be walking around with wet pants.

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 will also go with Gordon, but my reasoning is a little bit of a wrinkle to what's been said already.  When you lose a big name player (Achane), you expect a drop-off and I think he made the most of his opportunity.  We didn't notice that gaping hole, which speaks to the moment.

I initially said that I wasn't interested because typically movies based on video games are horrible, but after reading your review, I'm intrigued, I might end up trying to see this.

That makes me feel great.  1) That you read it and 2) that you considered it.

I hope you enjoy it if you decide to watch it.  Give feedback if you do.