Eddie Murphy has been a bit short on box office hits for a few years now. And he recently agreed to star in a fourth Beverly Hills Cop film. But he's been quoted as saying he may be retiring from making films altogether.

Considering some of the films he's been in over the last few years, it would probably be a relief. Could he really be giving it all up?

Eddie Murphy's latest film Meet Dave has him playing an alien space ship that has taken on a human form. Trouble stars when Murphy falls for an Earth woman. Sounds typical of the kind of film he's been in the last few years, painful comedies that don't hit the mark. Now ExtraTV through Jo Blo, say he may be giving up films to return to stand up.

I have close to fifty movies 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

Could we really be that lucky? He has Beverly Hills Cop 4 in the works, but he says it isn't ready to be done. Not only that but he kind of gives away the reason he's in this mess in the first place. His reasons for doing Beverly Hills Cop 3?

They said this is how much we're going to pay you. I said, 'let's go shoot it! I don't care if the script ain't right.

Sounds about right, and explains a lot. Who knows how accurate it is, but Murphy could do a lot worse than disappear from films for a while. We haven't seen the best out of him in a film for years. However if Brett Ratner's recent quotes are anything to go by, Beverly Hills Cop 4 is still a go, and what's more it won't be a PG. Speaking to Latino Review he said:

Dont believe everything you read on the internet. Believe me, this is going to be a hard core 'R' Beverly Hills Cop. I start shooting next year.

Maybe Murphy isn't serious, or maybe if he has to do Beverly Hills Cop 4 it will be his last film for a while. I'd be quite happy if it was, take some time out and come back with some decent films. Would you rather Murphy headed back to comedy? Or should he keep pluggin away at his film career?