I recommend Samurai Champloo (an anime series) for killer samurai action and irreverent pop-culture comedy. The title means "Samurai Remix" and there's great trance/techno music as well as a samurai porno comic shop, ancient Japanese streek punk taggers, a cameo by Andy Warhol and a psychotic co-hero who wears turkish-bath sandals and uses breakdancing moves combined with martial arts to annihilate his enemies! Not all the episodes are great--but the core story is always compelling--dark, comic, mystical and lots of hot babes! I just finished watching it the other night. Gorgeous animation. A must see.

I watched the 7 Samurai for the first time recently too--I gotta get Ran now!