I look forward to them and don't know what I'd do without them. I learn so much from my manager and always have ideas to discuss and questions to ask. As a manager, it's also great to know what's going on with my team beyond the project status updates.

I think it really depends on your manager (as Ted mentioned), where in the lifecycle of the project you are at, your level ie: if you are Sr. you probably don't need as much ongoing interaction. I used to have my team keep them scheduled and then check in prior and decide.