Movies that look as if the cast had too much fun making them are often cursed. But “Repo Man,” a cult sci-fi comedy from 1984, has long been the exception to that rule.

Loopy to the point of gonzo, scruffy in every important way, filmmaker Alex Cox conjured up punk rock sci-fi, a film that was Reagan-backlash political, more energetic than polished, more mouthy and goofy than smart.

And everybody in it, from star-on-the-rise Emilio Estevez to veteran character actor Tracey Walter and Blaxploitation alumna Vonetta McGee, gives every indication that they’re having a blast in a movie that feels “We’re-making-it-up-as-we-go” rash.

That was the year Harry Dean Stanton became a cult “star” in his own right, graduating from small, Southern working class bit parts in decades of TV episodes and films, from “Cool Hand Luke” and “Straight Time” to “Alien,” to leading man in “Paris, Texas” and as the sketchy LA “repo man” Bud, who insists that even he lives by a “code.”

“I shall not cause harm to any vehicle nor the personal contents thereof, nor through inaction let the personal contents thereof come to harm!”

Cox, a Brit not long out of film school, got the richest and “hippest” member of The Monkees (Mike Nesmith) to produce his low-budget script, rounded-up the seediest LA locations he could find (with the obligatory trek to the highway through Joshua Tree) and a low-cost but “cool” cast and he was off.

Because who wouldn’t want to be in an action comedy about a nutty scientist (Fox Harris) on the lam from Roswell in a ’64 Chevy Malibu with something strange and deadly in the trunk, a car that becomes the target of every Repo Man — car repossessors working for loan companies — in greater L.A.?

As competitors snatch and grab that Malibu, the movie becomes an amusingly deadly game of “Who’ll look in the trunk?” and “Who do we HOPE looks in the trunk?”

Estevez plays Otto, an earringed “punk” and stocker at a local supermarket, a rebel without a cause. He quits on a profane whim, and that leaves him vulnerable to a hustle from a guy who needs his “help” getting his car to the hospital because his wife is having a baby.

Bud (Stanton) tells the stupidest lies imaginable to convince gullible Otto to get this car and follow him in while stranger Bud drives “my wife’s car.” Otto’s spent too much time in the mosh pit to think much of anything through.

Otto “ain’t gonna be no repo man,” when he learns what he’s just done. But he’s taken cash and swiped a car on behalf of the Helping Hands Acceptance Corp.

“It’s too late. You already are.”

Walter, a character “type” who’d been in “Goin’ South” and “Raggedy Man,” is the repo lot mechanic and resident conspiracy nut Mitchell.

“You know how everybody’s into weirdness right now?”

McGee is the two-fisted office manager, with repo men Bud (Stanton) and Lite (Sy Richardson) serving as Otto’s mentors. Bud Lite will not lead him astray.

Otto picks up a fleeing young woman (Olivia Barash) who turns out to be a free spirit. Sex in a repossessed Caddy Eldorado? Don’t mind if I DO. But she’s on the run because “they” are after her, men in suits who want to know what she knows. Because the United Fruitcake Outlet (UFO) where she works is deep into UFOlogy and hip to the scientist, the Malibu and what might be in the trunk.

Otto keeps crossing paths with punk pals Archie (Miguel Sandoval), Debbi (Jennifer Balgobin) and Duke (Dick Rude) who are in the midst of a smalltime robbery/car-jacking spree.

“Let’s do some crimes!” “Yeah, let’s go get sushi and not pay!”

Forty years after its release, “Repo Man” plays like a snapshot of its era, from the punk nihilism that rose to the fore with Reaganism to the still-seen-on-punks haircuts and fashions and a fleet of aging-poorly hot-wireable cars from America’s “Malaise Motors” era.

Of course Otto is homophobic and not shy about slinging slurs. Of course the bad guys are “Men and Women) in Black” before “Men in Black” were a thing. Of course it’s more cinematic to not show us what’s actually in that Malibu trunk. Saved money, too.

Like many a cult film, “Repo Man” is meant to be watched with an audience of fellow cultists. Soberly seen outside of that cinema drafthouse environment, many of the jokes and gags still land, and some do not. When you’ve been imitated by many films and performers over the years, the “fresh” in your humor sours.

There are stretches when the only thing propelling this forward and giving it any pace is the Tito Larriva and The Plugz Latino punk/surf rock score, which sounds like Dick Dale went Tex Mex.

But that sense of the fun that the cast must have been having pops up in the odd improvised line or scene, and in moments that have a hint of “giddy” about them as various players pile into or out of this car or that one.

The best running gag isn’t about aliens, it’s about the guys this movie is built around — repo men facing off with the rival Rodriguez Brothers (Del Zamora and Eddie Velez). If Zander Schloss’s nerdy turn as a fellow grocery store stocker looks and sounds like the template for “Napoleon Dynamite,” Zamora and Velez prefigure “The Jesus” in “Big Lebowski.”

Cox was definitely onto something here, making a movie about an unsavory, careless and adrenalin-fueled profession which he’d worked in briefly to make ends meet. He’d go on to try his hand at something almost “mainstream” (“Sid & Nancy”) before settling into a succession of hit-or-mostly-miss cult films, more than one a pale imitation of this one.

Estevez would go on to lead “The Mighty Ducks” and start directing himself.

And Harry Dean Stanton? He’d roll down that dusty road towards “legend,” collecting a devoted worldwide following — including cool filmmakers — who’d ensure he’d always work, he’d get his share of big parts, and that fans would go hunting for him in everything he made before he donned a wrinkled suit, took a deep toot off some banned substance, and got to work.

“I don’t want no commies in my car! No Christians either!”

Rating: R, violence, drug abuse, profanity, homophobic slurs

Cast: Emilio Estevez, Harry Dean Stanton, Tracey Walter, Olivia Barash, Sy Richardson, Fox Harris, Del Zamora, Eddie Velez, Jennifer Balgobin, Fox Harris and Vonetta McGee

Credits: Scripted and directed by Alex Cox. A Universal release now on Netflix, Amazon, etc.

Running time: 1:32