When a young Parisian used cars salesman wins the lottery, he decides to give up his job (and his girlfriend) and travel to Istanbul to start a new life. There, he meets a beautiful nightclub singer but makes the mistake of asking the owner of the club for help with his papers; the owner is a small-time gangster who immediately realizes that this new arrival in town is loaded with money, and decides that he wants it all for himself. Meanwhile, our hero's older business partner, who also wants a share of the lottery winnings, comes to Istanbul to find him. Strictly mediocre in terms of story, pacing and action (the fight scenes are pretty clumsy),"Jerk à Istambul" has one major virtue (which can only be appreciated on a fine widescreen print, which is thankfully what I watched): its truly stunning scenery, which is not just limited to Istanbul, Turkey, but in the second half expands to Monemvasia, Greece, which looks so magnificent that you may decide to book it as your next vacation destination! The scenery is a character in itself in this movie - in fact, it is THE most interesting character, though the girl (Anny Duperey) and the villain (Pierre Richard) at least have some sense of style. The two "heroes", on the other hand, and especially Michel Constantine, come all-too-close to living up to the title with their behavior! ** out of 4.