In fairness to those with horror stories about weekly or other regularly scheduled meetings, I believe the problem is not with the meeting, itself, but how the meeting leader runs it and the commitment of the participants.
First, my opinion is that a meeting should ONLY include items that need
action, NOT to inform participants about anything - information is usually much better in written form which can be referred to, since the average listener rarely retains more than forty per cent of the content of an oral presentation.
Only folks who need to vote or "volunteer" for an action item should have to attend the meeting. When their section of meeting is done, they should leave (for efficiency - why keep someone from productive work by forcing attendance at a meeting which doesn't affect him?)
Some of the most effective meetings I've participated in were done STANDING (no chairs in the room), with no refreshments like coffee, bagels, etc. Length per se is not as critical as avoiding keeping folks captive when there is no more REAL business for the meeting and the leader keeps them with only small talk to fill the time.
Agendas should always be circulated as far ahead of meeting as possible so folks can prepare questions or responses and preprint reports to ALSO be circulated in advance so cogent questions or remarks can be formulated - with a view toward correction or proposing an action. These are not "pop quizzes" to play "gotcha" - they are meetings intended to forward the business purpose of the organization.
The worst aspect of any meeting I ever witnessed is when a "boss" used the occasion to dress down and publicly humiliate a subordinate.
All in all, I think meeting leaders and participants need to be trained in how to run and participate in a well-run, efficient meeting which actually accomplishes something. All the perfect agendas in the world won't save a meeting when a weak leader allows folks to stray from the agenda or lets some ego-tripper hijack the meeting.
A good meeting is part of the job, not a distraction nor an extra break to snarf down some goodies and drink pots of coffee.
For an interesting take on how one executive at Google runs her meetings, you might want to take a look at
this article from Business Week:
http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/sep2006/sb20060927_259688.htm?chan=smallbiz_smallbiz+index+page_today's+top+stories
It may be unfair, but I think the boss needs to understand what a meeting will accomplish that the written reports will not. 
