"Tears of the Black Tiger" is a farce in the style of "The Naked Gun."

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"Tears of the Black Tiger," is a Thai send-up of American Westerns with a tearjerker romance and a title reminiscent of a martial arts flick.

The comedy is a broadly acted, joke-a-minute spoof in the manner of "Scary Movie" or "The Naked Gun."

You could watch the film with a clipboard and check off all the over-the-top cowboy-movie references that mock "The Searchers" and "High Noon," while the love story messes with "From Here to Eternity" and "Casablanca."

The Black Tiger of the title is a gangster named Dum (Chartchai Ngamsan) who roams the range with a rival/sidekick/comic foil, Mahasuan (Supakorn Kitsuwon).

Dum has always loved Rumpoey (Stella Malucchi), despite her disapproving father, who has arranged her marriage to an upstanding police captain named Kumjorn (Arawat Ruangvuth). It's Kumjorn's duty to track down Dum and his overlord boss, Fai (Sombati Medhanee).

Writer/director Wisit Sasanatieng peppers his film with lonely drifters and hopeless — and thus hopelessly predictable — love affairs. His desperados, dressed in garish getups that would make Dwight Yoakam blush, engage in nonsensical shootouts prefaced by standoffs across back alleys.

The backdrops are matte paintings with DayGlo sunsets that look like they were painted by 12-year-olds.

Much of the appeal comes in the novelty of seeing American movie clichés put through the wringer. The concept is more fun in theory than in practice, however, and about halfway through the smarminess loses its charm, since a compelling story never materializes.

If the material seems played-out and aged, that's because the movie isn't exactly fresh out of the editing room. Sasanatieng made the film in 2000 and showed it at the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. It bounced around the circuit, then sat dormant before eking out a 2002 European theatrical release, then a U.S. art-house run this year.

The movie is a long time coming, but the wait for the self-absorbed film to end seems even longer. Maybe the Black Tiger's tears are of frustration.