What is the Seeder/Leecher ratio? Seeders are people who have the whole file and are sharing, leechers are people who are downloading but aren't sharing the whole file.
I also find that TPB is slow even when there is a good seeder/leecher ratio. I think this is due to where the trackers are located. TBP is a scandinavian site so I assume their servers are also in that area.
Also make sure that if you are using a router, you set up port forwarding for the ports that your torrent client uses.
What films are you trying to download? Are you SURE they are legal? Other sites may provide a better tracker, but seriously, only download legal stuff, or 'grey areas'. A grey area is something like TV shows, which I think is perfectly fine, you could use a tivo or VCR to record, so why is a torrent d/l bad? But to download the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie or Superman, etc, is ILLEGAL!