For anyone who, like me, was zero years old when the first Beverly Hills Cop was in theaters, it helps to know the facts: made on a $14 million dollar budget, the film grossed $230 million dollars. That's 1985 dollars, which today translates roughly into eleventy billion dollars. Eddie Murphy -- who had just gotten finished saving SNL from its early-'80s abyss -- was the biggest star in the world.

That's easy to forget, because this is a guy who recently made The Adventures of Pluto Nash, Showtime, I Spy, Daddy Day Care, and who followed up Dreamgirls with Norbit. He's making crap now -- but according to Extra, he's so acutely aware of that, he's thinking about giving up on movies altogether.

"I have close to fifty movies," he told the show, "and it's like, why am I in the movies? I've done that part now. I'll go back to the stage and do standup."

Frankly I don't believe him (and it seems lame to get news from Extra anyway) but the statement has rippled all across the web. Wouldn't it be great for Murphy to give up on idiotic duel-role comedies and head back to the stand-up stage? (And, uh, without the awkward homophobia of his original acts.)

Well, not so fast. See, a few weeks ago it was reported that director Brett Ratner, hired gun extraordinaire, was keen on making a fourth Beverly Hills Cop movie, and today, having apparently not heard Murphy's retirement announcement, mentioned that the movie is still moving forward and will be a hard R to appease the (apparently still existent) Beverly Hills Cop fanboys.

So to recap, if Murphy really did retire and go back to stand-up, it would be very cool. And if Murphy really did make an R-rated Beverly Hills Cop 4, it would also be very cool. But Eddie Murphy's not cool anymore. So our guess is he follows up Meet Dave with Norbit 2, and all this other stuff is forgotten. ❏