In 10.2, if you select more than, say, 20 files to apply a contextual menu command to, the cursor will get stuck on the "Open" item for a while (a very long while if you are renaming several hundred files). This has rendered contextual menus useless for many of my needs.
However, I stumbled on a way to get around this hangup. Instead of bringing the cursor straight down into the menu box, bring it down outside (to the left or right) of the box and then enter from the side. You can then navigate the menu with no delay.
Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20020924061058468