The Thirteenth Warrior was a very bad movie from an historical viewpoint, as bad as Gladiator and Braveheart. I do not speak to their appeal as escapism, but to their historical veracity. I could have lived with Beowulf being moved forward from the 5th or 6th Century Anglo-Saxon melieu to the Norse one that was used, but they did such a BAD job of presenting even that. Take the swords, for instance. On the other hand, no, don't bother, they were entirely too big, heavy, and unwieldy! That was how the entire movie went.
The film, The Vikings, was actually built around some factual incidents; the death of Ragnar Hairybreeks, the invasion of his sons, the portrayal of a Viking longship and of many of the Norse practices. If you want a really silly Viking movie on a par with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, try Erik the Viking. Damn but that was funny. The problem is that is available in this country only on VHS.
On Bullitt, if you cannot appreciate the real thing when you see it, I cannot help you. For me, brought up before CGI, I appreciate watching two real, live people wheeling two real, steel and rubber automobiles through the hills and flugplatzen or "flying places" of San Francisco. When those cars bottom out and you see the sparks flying, you know that it is for real and that the cars really are taking that beating. I also appreciate a very tightly drawn plot with very effectively done filming.