[quote name='cranky2']I haven't seen any of these movies, or even heard of the trilogy,- are the films part of the same universe or not connected?
$25 on sale sounds steep to me, Criterion or not. But $30 for a trilogy ain't bad.[/QUOTE]
No, they're completely different. They're not even from the same directors. The common link between the two is the actor Toshiro Mifune, who's excellent in both (as he is in everything in my opinion). Seven Samurai is from Kurosawa, and is considered his masterpiece. It's about 3 1/2 hours long, in black and white, and in my opinion expresses the Samurai spirit better than most other movies.
The Samurai trilogy is directed by Hiroshi Inagaki, and they avg. about 1.5 hours each. They're in full color, and have some beautiful scenery and colors at times. The tone is quite different from Seven Samurai though. It's more like a soap opera at times, with a slow moving romantic subplot that carries from one movie to the other. The trilogy has to be looked at as a whole as I don't feel the movies stand up that greatly on their own. There's also not much action in the movies, and when people do fight it usually doesn't last too long.
Of the two, I'd say Seven Samurai is the better choice. I'd also recommend getting Yojimbo and Sanjuro, when B&N has their Criterion sale.
(I just woke up, so forgive me if this sounds a little incoherent)