Flashes of competence adorn the new Saudi action comedy, “The Fakenapping.”

It’s not badly acted, and the few action beats make one wish director Amine Lakhnech had thrown in a few more car chases around scenic, modern after-dark Riyadh.

The plot is given away by the title. A son (Mohammed Aldokhe) is in hock to a loan shark, so he’s all ears when a sketchy pal (Yazeed Almahyul) suggests they fake a kidnapping to get ransom money out of Sattam’s miserly old man, Sulieman (Abdulaziz Al-Sokayreen).

A couple of goofy, inept Porsche-coveting lowllifes join the caper.

Sattam’s hapless yes-man-to-his-dad brother (Khaled Hweijan) and the brother’s greedy wife (Abrar Faisal) bicker over whether this is the best use of the fabric importer father’s under-the-table Saudi riyals.

But the subtitled translation is sloppy, with half the cast of characters never identified by name. The kidnapper accomplices aren’t ID’d at all. The “logic” of the plot doesn’t translate at times. And the finale makes less sense than the attempts to conjure up a “happy ending” out of all the greed, unpunished crime and family treachery of it all.

Aldohke is convincing as a father going through a divorce, doting on his pranks-loving little girl. But little is made of that plot thread and our leading man never works up what would pass for enraged and frantic that his character is meant to express in the latter acts.

A big fight is staged in which a chief henchman/bodyguard just stands by and let his mobster boss get smacked and grabbed into a wrestling tussle before finally — on cue — diving in.

Much of it is just “off” enough to not work. But as Saudi comedies and pretty much anything funny filmed in Arabic are rare, one can appreciate the effort.

I chuckled at the kidnappers making sure to provide a prayer mat and note the Qibla — the general direction of Mecca — to their victim. And I laughed at the realization — perhaps newer to the West than to the Middle East — that Saudi men who insist on dressing in a thawb, bisht and sandals are no damned good at chasing somebody, or getting away from anybody else. The shoes and all that cloth you have to gather up puts you at a disadvantage.

“The Fakenapping” isn’t very good. But it’s got possibilities. I’d keep an eye out for Amine Lakhnetch’s next outing. But he’d be well advised to spend some of that Saudi/Netfix money on paying for a more competitent closed caption translation than whatever Netflix is using now.

And if you’re going to put grown Saudi men into a chase on foot, the smart play is to make that stumbling, tripping, trapped in your “traditional” robes business a running gag.

Rating: TV-PG, mild violence, smoking

Cast: Mohammed Aldokhe, Yazeed Almajyul, Abdulaziz Al-Sokayreen. Saeed Al-Owairan, Abdullah Aldrees, Khaled Hweijan and Abrar Faisal

Credits Directed by Amine Lakhnech, scripted by Abdulaziz Alessa and Ahmed Amer. A Netflix release.

Running time: 1:26